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Victor of Vita:
History of the
Vandal Persecution

Translated with notes and introduction by
JOHN MOORHEAD

Liverpool

University

Press

HI-

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Translated Texts for Historians
Volume 10

Victor of Vita:
History of the
Vandal Persecution

Translated with introduction and notes by
JOHN MOORHEAD

Liverpool

University

Press

TfH

First published 1992 by
Liverpool University Press
4 Cambridge Street
Liverpool, L69 7ZU

Reprinted 2006

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ISBN 0 85323 127 3

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

History of the Vandal Persection

Prologue
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3

Abbreviations

Select Bibliography

Index

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a pleasure to thank those people who have helped in the
preparation of this short book. The Department of History at the
University of Queensland enabled me to spend a period in London
working on a draft, which benefited greatly from the comments of the
publisher’s reader. Serena Bagley and Mary Kooymau presided over
the production of the final manuscript with a high degree of both
efficiency and tact, while Liverpool University Press and those
associated with Translated Texts for Historians have always been
helpful. Finally, I should record that my parents, John and Pauline,
were present during a time of intensive work on the text, and that from
their astonished reactions to Victor’s narrative, as in many other things,
I have continued to learn from them.

John Moorhead
Feast of the Transfiguration, 1991

INTRODUCTION

Among those peoples who occupied the territory of the Roman empire
in the West in the fifth century and who, in accordance with the
perspective of the Romans, are conventionally termed ‘barbarians’, the
Vandals occupy an important place. 1 Having crossed the Rhine in the
company of other tribal groups on New Year’s Eve 406 they
intermittently moved south-west through Gaul and Spain until 429,
when, shortly after the accession of king Geiseric (428-477), they
crossed the straits of Gibraltar and moved into Roman Africa. It was
a desirable territory: a writer of the mid-fourth century had described
Africa as ‘rich in all things. It is adorned with all goods, grains as well
as beasts, and almost alone it supplies to all peoples the oil they
need.’ 2 Indeed, the export of oil may account for the remains of
African pottery of late antiquity which, as recent archaeological work
is revealing, achieved a “worldwide’ distribution, a phenomenon which
is currently suggesting major reinterpretations of the economic history
of late antiquity. 3 The Vandals made good headway, and in 435
Gciscric concluded a treaty with the Empire which granted them a
considerable portion of the land of Africa, based on Numidia. But in
439 he made a surprise move eastward into proconsular Africa and
occupied Carthage, the capital of Roman Africa. An expeditionary
force sent against the Vandals failed to reach its destination, and in the
following year a second treaty awarded them the proconsular province,
Byzacena, Tripolitania and part of Numidia. The remaining, western
part of Africa remained in the hands of the Romans, and so the
Vandals were confirmed in their possession of the richest areas. From
there they launched expeditions against many parts of the

1 Incomparably the most important work is that of Courtois 1955, whose status as the
standard synthesis is secure for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless it must be said that in both
this work and his shorter study on Victor 1954 the tone he adopts towards this author is
hypercritical; see Chatillon 1955 and Marrou 1967. Courtois has also come under attack for the
sharpness of the distinction he draws between civilized and 'forgotten'Africa: Whittaker 1978.
Prosopography is now on a more secure footing, thanks to the works of Maier 1973, Mart indale
1980 and Mandouze 1982; note as well the comments of Diesner 1968. Archaeology is yielding
more results, as shown by the work of Koenig 1981.

2 Expositio totius mundi el gentium 61. Note that the Visigoth Alaric was presumably
leading his people towards Africa when he died at Consentia in Bruttium in 410 (lileraty sources
listed in PLRE 2: 48).

3 Carandini 1983, and more generally Giardina 1986.

VICTOR OF VITA

Mediterranean, and in 455 Geiseric was able to take advantage of
instability in Rome to attack the city. In 460 the emperor Majorian sent
a fleet against the Vandals, but nothing came of the expedition; in 468
the emperor Leo launched an attack on an astonishing scale, but it too
failed. 4 The reigns of Geiseric’s eldest son Huneric (477-484) and the
subsequent kings show few signs of an aggressive foreign policy, which
may possibly be accounted for by troubles the Vandals were
experiencing from the African Moors and the need for a greater
eoncentration on internal affairs. Their kingdom did not long outlast
the accession of the emperor Justinian in 527: in 533 he sent against it
his general Belisarius who defeated the Vandals in a short war,
whereupon Africa became a part of the Empire again.

Such events constitute an indispensable background to the
work here translated. But only rarely do they intrude on it, for, as the
titles affixed to manuscript copies of the work imply, its author, Victor
of Vita, was essentially concerned to recount the Vandals’ persecution
of the Catholics of Africa, from the time of their arrival in 429 until
484, in which year he seems to have written virtually all his work. This
concern governed Victor’s selection of material, and if his opening
chapters are sometimes couched in vague language and problematic in
their chronology, he proceeds to give a minutely detailed account of
numerous atrocities inflicted on the Catholics in the proconsular
province. Compared to the benignly tolerant Ostrogoths in Italy, or the
intermittently persecuting Visigoths in Gaul and Spain, other Arian
peoples who settled in Roman territory and are similarly known from
accounts written by Catholics, the Vandals emerge from Victor’s
account as thoroughly nasty. Doubtless other emphases were possible
in describing them; the moralist Salvian, for example, writing not long
after the arrival of the Vandals, expressed pleasure that the Vandals
cleaned up the lax sexual practices which had been rife in Africa. 5
Victor was aware that not everyone shared his outlook (cf below 3.62),
and recent work is making clear continuities between Roman and
Vandal Africa: for example, we know of the continued existence of

4 It has been calculated that the sum expended on the campaign was at least six times that
spent by Justinian on the construction of Hagia Sophia: Courtois 1955: 201.

5 Gub dei 7.22 in particular, but cf. 7.14 for the author’s concern with this theme. Salvian
is cited as representing a point of view; there is no need to take him seriously as evidence.

INTRODUCTION

provinces for administrative purposes, while developments in urban
evolution in the Vandal period can be seen as part of long-term trends,
and the export of pottery continued, if on a reduced level. * 6 But,
assuming that some degree of reality underlies Victor’s tale of woe, we
may ask why the Vandals behaved in a way which allows them to be
seen as more ferocious than their Gothic co-religionists.

The earlier part of Victor’s narrative, which deals with the
activities of the Vandals before and after the capture of Carthage,
suggests that at this stage their behaviour was motivated chiefly by a
desire to gain control of the wealth of the indigenous people who were,
as it happened. Catholics. That such behaviour created more animosity
than that of the Goths is not to be wondered at, for, although the
precise mechanism whereby the Goths were given access to the wealth
of the territories they took over remains the subject of debate, it is
clear that this was in accordance with an orderly system which, in Italy
at any rate, was put in place by a Roman, the praetorian prefect
Liberius. 7 8 This was certainly not the case with the Vandals, who helped
themselves. Bishops and clergy were indeed to the fore among the
victims of Geiseric’s wrath, but this answered to the wealth of their
churches; on one occasion the king demanded a change in the religious
allegiance of Sebastian, but this was merely a pretext for doing away
with him for political reasons (Victor 1.19).® Nevertheless, if Geiseric’s
persecution of Catholics was motivated by economic considerations one
would have expected it to have lessened as the Vandals increasingly
gained control of their wealth. Yet the reverse happened, and from the
period beginning with the death of bishop Deogratias, which occurred
before the end of 457 (Victor 1.27), persecution based on religion
predominates. Only then does Victor explicitly mention that the
Vandals were Arians (persistently spelt by him ‘Arrians’), referring to
their allegiance to the doctrine of Arius, a heretic of the early fourth
century who, contrary to the Catholics, referred to by the Vandals as
‘homousians’, emphasised the degree of difference between the Father

Continued existence of provinces: Chastagnol 1967. Urban evolution: Thebert 1983.

Potteiy: Carandini 1983:151. Continuity in other spheres is explored by Clover 1982b. 1986.

7 Goffart 1980 provides a challenging revisionist account.

8 cf. the ‘heuristic principle' enunciated by Dicsncr 1962: I08f.

VICTOR OF VITA

xii

and the Son and denied that they were of one substance; only then
(1.30 onwards) does Victor begin to employ such words as ‘martyrdom'
and ‘confessor.’ The death of Geiseric in 477 seems to have brought
some relief to the persecuted, but under his successor Huneric (spelt
‘Huniric’ by Victor and ‘Hunirix’ in official documents he reproduces)
conditions soon worsened, and it became clear that religion was now
the point at issue. As far as the Byzantine author Procopius was aware,
persecution of a specifically religious kind only began with Huneric,
and given that he had arrived in Africa with the army of Bclisarius he
was in a position to have access to local traditions. 9 Finally, in 484 an
edict was issued which sought to impose Arianism on the Catholics,
and in the succeeding months persecution reached its peak. 10 We may
therefore accept Victor’s assertion that there were two reasons for the
persecution: ‘the loss of souls and the plunder of property’ (3.63). Both
religious and economic factors were involved.

Victor’s narrative, then, can be read as a document describing
a particularly bad case of relations between Romans and occupying
barbarians, and for this reason it constitutes an important record of the
period of the Vdlkerwanderung. But this is not the only way in which
the text can be approached. A number of modem writers, often arguing
from passages in the fifth century authors Orosius {adv pag 7.41.7) and
Salvian (gub dei 7.16.71; see too 5.8), and reports in the letters of
Augustine of Hippo of attempts by Arians and schismatic Donatists to
make allies of each other (ep 44.3.6, 185.1.1), have suggested that the
Vandals, as they invaded Africa, enjoyed the support of many Africans
who were, for various reasons, unhappy with Roman government. * 11
But against this theory it may be argued, firstly, that we should be wary
of building upon two rhetorical passages in Orosius and Salvian and
from passages of Augustine which were written before the situation
they are used to explain came into being, and secondly, that with the

BV 1.8.3.1 doubt whether any anti-catholic sentiment is to be read into Geiseric’s famous
observation, reported by Procopius, that he was sailing against ‘those with whom God is angry'
(BV 1.5.24).

10 A different understanding in Frend 1982: 627.

11 See. with varying degrees of emphasis, Stein 1959: 320f, 327; Diligensky 1961: 246-48;
Diesner 1966: 51f; and perhaps Frend 1971: 300.1 cannot accept Possidius VAug 23 as evidence
that ‘the clergy were hated because of their possessions’ (so Frend, in Frage 1978:479 n.2).

INTRODUCTION

xiii

possible exception of a portion at the end of Victor’s work almost
certainly not written by him (3.71), we have absolutely no evidence for
the Donatists having supported the Vandals. Indeed, one recension of
a work of Donatist provenance composed in Vandal Africa
demonstrates that the letters in the name ‘Gensericus’ have the
numerical value 666. 1Z Nevertheless, the intuition that events which
occurred during the Vandal domination of Africa need to be
understood in the light of preceding African history, particularly
religious history, is entirely sound, and it will be worth our while going
into this subject in a little more detail.

Even while the Roman empire was still pagan, African
Christianity had displayed distinctive characteristics. It was immensely
productive of martyrs, of whom Perpetua and Felicitas in the time of
Septimius Severus and bishop Cyprian of Carthage in the time of
Valerian are probably the best known, and both literary and
archaeological evidence indicate the popularity of the cult of the
African martyrs. Africa was also productive of movements resistant to
ecclesiastical authority; one thinks of the career of Tertullian and of
the confessors whose treatment of the lapsed caused so much trouble
for Cyprian. The conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity
occurred at almost the same time as the outbreak of a major schism in
the African church, that of the Donatists. This originated in
disagreement as to the attitude to be taken to those who had handed
over the scriptures in time of persecution (tradilores) and those
ordained by them, and the defiance of the state practised by the
Donatists early in the fifth century was to lead Augustine to develop a
theory of coercion which some of his most enthusiastic modem
admirers have found distasteful. The independent nature of African
Christianity was again demonstrated after the Byzantine reconquest:
African theologians, notably bishop Facundus of Hermiane, were to the
fore in resisting the condemnation of the Three Chapters which
Justinian foisted on the church, even after it had been approved by
pope Vigiliusand the Council of Constantinople (553), and the seventh

Liber genealogus F618, MGHAA 9: 195. One would like to know more about this text.

XIV

VICTOR OF VITA

century saw the Africans challenge another imperially supported
dogma, that of Monothelitism. 13

These events have no direct connection with the Vandals, but
provide a necessary background to the work of Victor of Vita. For an
author whose characters are prone to cry out, in words going back to
the first generations of Christians, ‘Christiani sumus!’ (Victor 2.28,3.17,
cf. 3.49), who describes implements of torture which were the same as
those used against Christians in the days of the persecutions (below
3.28 with note 13) and martyres and confessores who pass through
passiones (2.33) to their coronae (1.50, 2.30, 234), and who reports an
attempt by agents of the state to force clergy to hand over ( tradere )
cultic instruments and books (1.39), is obviously describing a situation
which he sees in terms of the great persecutions. Similarly, Victor is
almost obsessed with the evil of the rebaptism which the Arians insisted
that converts to their persuasion underwent, an issue which seems to
rank in his mind as being of roughly equal importance to the Trinity
among the issues dividing Catholics from Arians. The anti-Arian
arguments of the Book of the catholic faith, a work which the catholic
bishops prepared for the council summoned by Huneric in 484 and
which Victor reproduces (2.56-2.101), are entirely concerned with belief
in the Trinity, whereas Victor’s stress on rebaptism, on the other hand,
reveals concern with an issue which had been a concern of the African
church in the time of Cyprian and had called forth polemical writings
from Augustine of Hippo against the Donatists. 14 And surely the Book
of the catholic faith not only recalls the intrepidity and theological
acumen of the African bishops who badgered the emperor Honorius
concerning the heresy of Pelagius early in the fourth century, but also
anticipates the feisty opposition their successors were to display towards
the ecclesiastical policies of later Byzantine emperors. Seen in this way,
Victor’s History becomes a document revelatory of not only the
barbarian invasions, but of the nature of African Christianity as well.
And it suggests that the nature of the memorable encounter between
the catholic Christians of Africa and the Vandals owed something to

It would be good to have a reliable one volume account; see, perhaps, Cuoq 1984. At
a very different level are the excellent comments of Markus 1972 and Cameron 1982.

But note that the Catholics in Victor were forcibly rebaptized and hence compelled to
apostatize, so that the grounds underlying the issue were quite different.

INTRODUCTION

the combative traditions of the former as well as the nefarious nature
of the latter.

We know little of the author of the work here translated,
although the density of scriptural allusions, particularly in the
impassioned concluding sections, surely enable a clerical author to be
postulated. Various deductions can be made from passages which are
written in the first person and the attribution supplied in manuscripts
of the History, ‘sancto victore episcopo patriae vitensi’, which is
generally accepted to mean ‘the holy Victor, a bishop, whose place of
origin was Vita.’ 15 As it happens, at the time of the council summoned
by Huneric in 484 a bishop named Victor governed the see of Vita in
Byzacena, and one is naturally tempted to identify this person with the
author of the History. But the bishop of Vita did not attend the
council, 16 whereas it is clear from the narrative in the History that its
author was among those present. Moreover, his descriptions of his own
activities sometimes imply that he was a priest, as when for example he
celebrates the divine mysteries (2.28), but never that he was a bishop,
and his sustained use of the first person implies that he spent a good
deal of time at Carthage; indeed, his ability to reproduce official
documents implies that he had access to the archives of the see of
Carthage. 17 Nevertheless, Victor does not seem to have been one of
the 4966 clergy who were exiled by Huneric, despite his having
accompanied them, for he describes himself as being among those who
were able to visit them when they were held in confinement (Victor
2.28, 2.32). We may therefore believe that at the time when he wrote
his history he was a priest in Carthage, perhaps not formally one of the
clergy of the city, who later became a bishop, possibly of Vita, his place
of origin.

The scanty evidence is discussed by Courtois 1954: 5-10, Pastorino 1980: 48-53,
Costanza 1980: 231-39 and 1981: 8-12, and, more briefly, Mandouze 1982: 1175f (Victor 64).

16 ‘non occunit’ is recorded against his name, no. 44 in the list of bishops of Byzacena in
the Notitia provinciarum civitatum Africae attached to Victor’s Historic ed. Halm p. 65, ed.
Petschenig p. 125. The town of Vita seems otherwise unknown.

17 He reproduces various edicts of Huneric (2.3f. 2.39. 3.3-14) and a reply to one of these
by bishop Eugenius (2.41f), as well as the Book of the catholic faith. Pastorino describes Carthage
as the epicentre of Victor’s stoiy (1980: 77).

XVI

VICTOR OF VITA

It is hard to establish when Victor wrote his work. 1 * The
opening words may seem to supply a straightforward solution to this
question: ‘It is evident that this is now the sixtieth year since that cruel
and savage people of the Vandal race set foot on the territory of
wretched Africa.’ As the Vandal invasion of Africa began in May
429, 19 assuming that Victor reckons the years inclusively this would
seem to yield a date of 488/489 for the composition of his work. Yet
the greater part of the narrative deals with the events of 484: we are
told of the meeting called by Huneric which was held in the February
of that year, an edict issued by the king on 25 February is reproduced,
various atrocities subsequently committed by the Vandals are described,
one of which is known from another work, possibly also written by
Victor, to have occurred on 2 July, 20 while another is known to have
occurred on 24 September, 21 and the narrative concludes with the
description of a terrible famine which occurred during one summer,
presumably that of 484. The last chapter in the text which has been
transmitted to us, which mentions the death of Huneric in December
484, is almost certainly a later addition to the text, for 3.70 can be seen
as the conclusion of a rhetorical passage which begins at 3.64, and the
effect of 3.71 is sheer bathos. 22 The flow of the narrative therefore
suggests 484 as the date of composition, and the circumstance that the
exiled bishop Eugenius had already been recalled by the third year of
the reign of Huneric’s successor 23 could be held to suggest that Victor
wrote before that time.

Why, then, does Victor claim to be writing in the sixtieth year
from the coming of the Vandals to Africa? Perhaps he reckoned the

General discussions: Courtois 1954:16-22; Pastorino 1980:53-57; Costanza 1980:239-45
and 1981: 12-14.

19 Hydatius chron 90, MGHAAW. 21; see Courtois 1955: 155n.2.

20 Victor 3.41; the date is known from the full title of the Passio beatissimorum martyrum
which occurs togetherwith the Historic in all manuscripts and is printed by Halm and Petschenig
immediately following it. That Victor wrote it has been denied by Courtois 1954: 26f. and
Pastorino 1980: 61f, but against this Pitkaranta 1974 points out similarities of style.

The burning of Laetus (Victor 2.52) can be dated from Victor of Tunnunna chron. s.a.

479.

22 I am not persuaded by Roncoroni 1977, and Pastorino 1980: 57-61 is more open
minded than I would care to be; see, rather, Courtois 1954: 16.

23 Laterculus regum Wandalorum et Alanorum 8 (MGH AA 13: 459)

INTRODUCTION

xvu

years from a Vandal incursion shortly prior to 429, 24 perhaps he was
misinformed as to the date of the arrival of the Vandals in Africa, or
perhaps a scribal error distorted what he originally wrote. But there are
a few brief passages which must have been written subsequent to the
death of Huneric: the hand which wrote ‘quod non contingit’ at 2.12
was aware that Huneric was not succeeded by his sons, the author of
the words ‘quod breve fuerat et caducum’ at 2.17 knew that Huneric’s
reign was short and transitory, and another passage which may have
been written after 484 occurs in 3.30, where the writer mentions that
a victim of the persecution was to be seen in Constantinople. Perhaps
Victor lightly revised the manuscript of a work he had written some
years earlier before he published it in 488/489, or perhaps someone else
added a few touches. In any case, there is no reason to doubt that the
text originated in the church of Carthage at a time veiy close indeed
to the events it describes in book three, and that for the most part its
perspective is that of an author writing somewhat late in the year 484,
with the immediacy but possible lack of perspective that this implies.

The circumstances of the composition of the book raise the
difficult question of the purpose for which Victor wrote his history. The
only substantial discussion of this question is that provided by Courtois,
who argues that Victor’s work constitutes a plea for aid from
Byzantium written at the behest of bishop Eugenius of Carthage, whose
name suggests that he came from the East. 25 Given the linguistic
situation which prevailed in Constantinople in the late fifth century it
would not have been unreasonable for the author of a work seeking to
influence opinion there to have written in Latin, and it is true that the
conclusion to Victor’s work refers to the African church as having
sought help from the East, although I take Victor to have written
‘fathers (patribus) of the East’ rather than ‘parts {partibus ) of the East’
(3.68), and would note that the words which follow imply that a plea
had already been made unsuccessfully. This consideration is not
necessarily decisive, however, for the references need to be seen in the

So Schanz 1904: 567. It may be significant that Victor styles Geiseric at the lime of the
invasion of Africa dux rather than rex, despite Geiseric having become king in 428 (PLRE 2:
497).

25 Courtois 1954: 17-22; so too Constanza 1980: 246-49 and 1981: 16. Contra. Romano
1962: 21. 34.

xviii VICTOR OF VITA

context of a peroration which requests the presence of Catholics from
across the whole world (3.64), not just the East, seeks the sympathy of
brothers, and invokes the presence of the angels and the intercession
of the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, especially Peter and Paul;
indeed, the conclusion of the text could be held to have been addressed
to the Roman church as plausibly as to anyone in Constantinople. Nor
need we accept that Victor’s failure to mention the disastrous
expedition launched against the Vandals in 468 tells in favour of the
thesis that he was writing a plea seeking Byzantine intervention: 26
rather, this matter was irrelevant to Victor’s narration of a persecution.
On the other hand, it is possible to read Victor’s suggestion that
anyone who found it hard to accept that people whose tongues had
been cut out could still speak ‘should go to Constantinople now’(3.30)
as telling against this thesis, for this would have been a pointless
recommendation to readers already in the city, and the implied
criticism of Zeno’s legate Uranius at 3.32 would hardly have been
welcome in Constantinople (see too 2.5 for a further instance of
implied criticism, and perhaps 2.38).

Such arguments, however, are not necessarily decisive, for it
would be possible to construe criticism of Byzantine policy as an
attempt to show that a firmer fine was needed against the Vandals, and
one consideration may be of weight. A brief passage in the Codex
Justinianus published in 534, shortly after the triumphant conclusion of
the war against the Vandals, describes the hardships which this people
had caused the people of Africa in terms which could almost be read
as a summary of Victor’s narrative. 27 It is certainly possible that
Victor’s text circulated in Constantinople, but it is not necessary to
credit Victor with having written with this in mind.

For the purpose of this translation I have not considered it
necessary to evaluate variant manuscript readings in any systematic
way, although the number of new readings proposed by Pitkaranta
(1978) indicates that such a task could repay the attention of a

So Courtois 1954: 51.

Codex justinianus 1.27.2-4, where only the detail of churches having been turned into
stables is foreign to Victor. Precise textual parallels are difficult to establish; the closest seems
to be ‘abscissis radicitus linguis’ (cod just 1.27.4) and *linguas...radicitusabscidisset' (Victor 3.30).

INTRODUCTION

xix

competent scholar. Of the two critical editions, those of Halm (MGH
AA 3) and Petschenig (CSEL 7), I have generally found the former
more satisfactory, although Pctschenig’s printing of a greater number
of variant readings, his use of a larger number of manuscripts, and
fuller indices, fruits of the enquiries which produced his massive study
of 1880, are still of value. The reader can therefore assume that the
translation which follows is, in all substantial respects, of the text
printed by Halm, with the following major variants (the sign * indicates
a reading printed in neither critical edition; I have not listed passages
which I have silently repunctuated):

* 1.3

(Halm p. 2.18) impendebant, not impetebant

1.8

(p. 3.24) valuerit, not valuerat

* 1.9

(p. 3.29) maiorum, not maiorem (cf. Courtois 1954:
42n.l46)

1.11

(p. 4.9) meatu, not metu (cf. Pitkaranta 1978: 23)

1.21

(p. 6.15) alio, not alius

2.29

(p. 19.23) moriendos, not moliendo

2.31

(p. 20.9f) ponuntur et custodes postibus, not
puniuntur et custodes fustibus

2.98

(p. 38.24) prophetant, not prophetat

3.4

(p. 40.26) delete novae

3.19

(p. 44.24) quia, not qui

3.23

(p. 45.26) matema, not aetema

3.25

(p. 46.11) totam per orbem, not tota die per orbem

3.39

(p. 50.21) veredi, not viro

* 3.43

(p. 51.16) omit sacci sui

3.45

(p. 51.30) sum, not sit

* 3.51

(p. 53.15) fecerant, not finxerant (cf. Pitkaranta 1978:
138)

3.54

(p. 54.10) impio, not imperioso

3.60

(p. 55.29) primam secunda, not prima secundam

To avoid a multiplication of footnotes I have supplied
references to biblical quotations and allusions in parentheses, without
troubling to register minor ways, whether due to the text which Victor
or the authors of the Book of the catholic faith were familiar with,
faulty memory, or some other cause, in which they differ from modem

VICTOR OF VITA

printed versions of the Bible. The chapter and verse numbers of the
psalms are those of the Vulgate, but the names of books of the Bible
are those by which they are generally known in English. Where ‘Vulg’
is added, the text Victor cites is similar to the Vulgate and differs
significantly from the modern translations readers may have at their
disposal; where ‘cf is added, Victor’s text is significantly different from
both the Vulgate and modem versions. 2 * Similarly, I have sometimes
supplied in parentheses the modem names of towns mentioned by
Victor, using for this purpose the data gathered by Mandouze 1983 in
the first place, and by Courtois 1954, to which I must record my
indebtedness. I have at all times tried to keep in mind the obligation
of a translator to render ‘non verbum e verbo, sed sensum...de sensu,’
and hope that this version will succeed in making a fascinating text
better known.

M It must be said that some of the variants which occur in the Book of the catholic faith
constitute amendments in a Trinitarian direction.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

A HISTORY OF THE PERSECUTION OF THE AFRICAN
PROVINCE IN THE TIMES OF GEISERIC AND HUNIRIC THE
KINGS OF THE VANDALS, WRITTEN BY THE HOLY VICTOR
THE BISHOP, WHOSE NATIVE PLACE WAS VITA 1

PROLOGUE

1 In times past the ancients, led on by their desire for wisdom, kept on
examining and enquiring carefully into the things which might have
happened, for good or otherwise, in provinces, places or regions. 2
When they dealt with these matters they sharpened the pen of their
intellect and offered to those ignorant of the floral gatherings of history
the perfumed flowers of their teaching freely, as a gift. They saw to it
that nothing which had been done in any area remained hidden.

2 But those people, puffed up with the arrogance of worldly love,
longed for the glory of their haughtiness to be proclaimed and praised
far and wide. You, on the other hand, being moved by the wish, so
worthy of respect, to compose a history, conduct your affairs with a
similar ardour indeed, but with a different love. They acted so as to be
praised in this world, but you so that you might be seen as radiant in
the world to come, and say: ‘My soul shall rejoice in the Lord; let the
gentle hear and be glad.’ (Ps 33:3) You will be able to do as you have
wished because you have received from heaven ‘every good endowment
and every perfect gift’ (Jas 1:17), having been taught by a great pontiff
who is worthy of being extolled with praise of every kind, the blessed
Diadochus, whose numerous sayings concerning catholic dogma, shining
Like stars, are well known. And for you ‘it is sufficient to attain to the

1 The title given here represents a reconstruction made on the basis of incipits and
explicits, although Costanza (1980: 230f, 1981:8) suggests regis (or regum. hence ‘of Gciscricand
Huniric the king’.

2 I accept the authenticity of this prologue, with Courtois 1954: 19 and Pitkaranta 1978:
14-16, against Petschenig 1880: 727-732.

VICTOR OF VITA

learning of your teacher’ (cf Matt 10:25), because it suffices for the
disciple to be like his master. 3

3 I see another Timothy, instructed from his earliest childhood in the
sacred writings (cf. II Tim 3:15), as well as Luke, sublime and alert
among men, a disciple of the apostle Paul and a doctor by profession.

4 So I, bending my neck in obedience to the person giving the order,
shall attempt to reveal, in summary and brief fashion, the things which
occurred in the regions of Africa as the Vandals raged. Like a rural
labourer, with weary arms I shall collect gold from hidden caves, but
I shall not hesitate to hand over something which still looks unrefined
and disordered for it to be tested in the fire by the judgment of a
craftsman who may be able to mint solidi from it. 4

3 This passage is addressed lo bishop Eugenius of Carthage. Diadochus is the bishop of
Photike whose one hundred chapters on spiritual perfection survive (ed. des Places, SC 5 bis;
PG 65:1167-1212). Marrou (1943) suggests that Diadochus met the clergy of Carthage, including
Eugenius, the presumed addressee of the prologue, when he was taken there by the Vandals
after a pirate raid; more plausibly, Courtois (1954: 21f) sees Eugenius as an easterner who came
to Carthage with Zeno’s legate Alexander (below 2.3)

4 On the topoi here, Pitkaranta 1978: 18.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

BOOK 1

1 It is evident that this is now the sixtieth year since the cruel and
savage people of the Vandal race set foot on the territory of wretched
Africa. They made an easy passage across the straits, because the vast
and broad sea becomes narrow between Spain and Africa, which are
separated by only twelve miles. 1

2 A large number made the crossing, and in his cunning duke
Geiscric, intending to make the reputation of his people a source of
dread, ordered then and there that the entire crowd was to be counted,
even those who had come from the womb into the light that very day.
Including old men, young men and children, slaves and masters, there
was found to be a total of 80,000. News of this has spread widely, until
today those ignorant of the matter think that this is the number of their
armed men, although now their number is small and feeble. 2

3 Finding a province which was at peace and enjoying quiet, the whole
land beautiful and flowering on all sides, they set to work on it with
their wicked forces, laying it waste by devastation and bringing
everything to ruin with fire and murders. They did not even spare the
fruit-bearing orchards, in case people who had hidden in the caves of
mountains or steep places or any remote areas would be able to eat the
foods produced by them after they had passed. So it was that no place
remained safe from being contaminated by them, as they raged with
great cruelty, unchanging and relentless. 3

The Vandals seem to have crossed into Africa in May 429 (Courtois 1955: 155 n,2).
Jordancs reports that seven miles separate Spain and Africa (get 167), but both he and Victor
are probably wrong (Courtois 1955: 159 n.2).

2 On the figure of 80,000, Goffart 1980: 231*34 is convincingly sceptical, against e.g.
Courtois 1955: 215-17 and Orlandis 1987:32. Satvian felt that there were not many Vandals (gub
dei 7.27f), and Zacharias considered that, at the end of their kingdom in Africa, they were few
in number compared to the Romans {hist eccl 9.17). If Victor is indeed describing the crossing
of the Vandals in 429 it is odd that he styles Geiseric dux, as he had become king in the
preceding year (above p. xiv n.24).

3 For the early ravages of the Vandak, see too Possidius VAug 28 (parallels, which do not
seem to me to be particularly strong, between this author and Victor are discussed by Capello
1937: 106f) and the sermon de tempore barbarico ii (PLS 3: 287-98). Note too a letter of bishop

VICTOR OF VITA

4 In particular, they gave vent to their wicked ferocity with great
strength against the churches and basilicas of the saints, cemeteries and
monasteries, so that they burned houses of prayer with fires greater
than those they used against the cities and all the towns. * * 4 5 When they
happened to find the doors of a sacred building closed they were keen
to open up a way with the blows of their hatchets, so that of them it
could then rightly be said: ‘They broke its doors in pieces with then-
axes as if they were in a forest of trees; they cast it down with axe and
hatchet: they set your sanctuary on fire: they cast the tabernacle of your
name to the ground and defiled it.’ (Ps 73:5-7 Vulg)

5 How many were the distinguished bishops and noble priests put to
death by them at that time with different kinds of torments, as they
tried to make them give up any gold or silver belonging to themselves
or the churches! And so that the things which were in their keeping
would be brought forth more easily under the pressure of pain, they
inflicted cruel torments a second time on those who produced things,
asserting that they had produced a part but not the whole, and the
more a person gave, the more they believed he had still more. 3

6 Some had their mouths forced open with poles and stakes, and
disgusting filth was put in their jaws so that they would tell the truth
about their money. They tortured others by twisting cords around their
foreheads and shins until they snapped. Devoid of mercy they offered
many people sea water, others vinegar, the lees of olive oil, fish sauce
and many other cruel things, while full wineskins were placed near then-
mouths. Neither the weaker sex, nor regard for nobility, nor reverence
for the priesthood softened those cruel hearts; on the contrary, when

Capreolus of Carthage explaining his inability to attend the council of Ephesus, held in 431 (PLS

3: 295f).

4 According to Possidius (V Aug 30), only three churches survived, those of Carthage,
Hippo and Cirta.

5 Augustine’s correspondent bishop Honoratus of Thiaua raised the question of clergy
being tortured for wealth they did not possess (Augustine ep 228.5, quoted in Possidius VAug
30), and Procopius reports that the worst charge which could be made against Africans was that
of having money and hiding it (BV 1.5.16f; note that clergy are not specifically mentioned here.)
Persecution of bishops is reported by Prosper Tiro chron s.a. 437.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

they caught sight of some officeholder worthy of honour, the wrath of
their fury was thereupon increased.

7 I am unable to recount the number of the priests and men holding
the rank of inlustris on whom they placed enormous burdens, as if they
were camels or other kinds of baggage animals, and forced to walk
using iron goads. Some of them breathed their last in wretched fashion
under their burdens. Mature age and that greyness, worthy of
veneration, which whitens the hair of the head so that it looks like
shining wool, obtained no mercy from the enemy. 5 * Indeed, in then-
barbaric frenzy they even snatched children from their mothers’ breasts
and dashed the guiltless infants to the ground. 7 They held others by
the feet, upside down, and cut them in two from their bottoms to the
tops of their heads; then it was, perchance, that captive Zion sang: ‘My
enemy said that he would burn my lands, kill my little children and
dash my infants to the ground.’ (cf II Kings 8:12)

8 In some buildings, namely great houses and homes where fire had
been of less service to them, they smashed the roofs in pieces and
levelled the beautiful walls to the ground, so that the former beauty of
the towns cannot be deduced from what they look like now. And there
arc very many cities with few or no inhabitants, for after these events
the ones which survive lie desolate; for example, here at Carthage they
utterly destroyed the odeon, the theatre, the temple of Memoria and
what people used to call the Via Caelestis. 8

5 On 'bospes' as 'enemy', Pitkaranla 1978:124.

Verbal similarities between this passage and a portion of Rufinus of Aquileia describing

the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 are pointed out by Wynn 1990:189, an important study where
other borrowings by Victor from this author are noted. ‘Barbaric frenzy' is discussed at some
length by Costanza 1984.

8 It is difficult to assess the reliability of this passage. That there were many cities with
few or no inhabitants is taken literally by Frend 1971: 62, although Victor hardly supports his
thesis of a decline already in the Roman period. Within Carthage, archaeological work is not
yet helpful (Clover 1982a: 19: Hurst and Roskams 1984:44f).Tbe temple of Memoria is recently
discussed by Senay and Beauregard 1986; I cannot see that the data of Victor 3.17 tell against
the destruction of the temple (with Belyaev 1972, against Courtois 1954: 41). It may be worth
noting that the temple of Caelestis had been overthrown by Catholics before the arrival of the
Vandals: Quodvultdeus lib prom 3.44.

VICTOR OF VITA

9 To speak only of the most noteworthy things, in their tyrannical
presumption they delivered over to their religion the basilica of the
Ancestors where the bodies of SS Perpetua and Felicitas are buried,
the basilica of Celerina and the Scillitani, and others which they had
not destroyed. 9 But where there were some defensive works against
which the hostility of their barbaric frenzy was unable to prevail,
countless throngs were brought together at the walls of the towns.
These they put to death with their savage swords, so that when the
corpses had rotted away they were able, by means of the stench of the
decaying bodies, to bring about the death of those whom they had not
been able to approach because of the sheltering walls which protected
them.

10 Who will be able to declare how many and how numerous were the
bishops who were then tortured by them? For it was then as well that
Pampinianus, the venerable bishop of our town, 10 was burnt all over
his body by plates of glowing iron; in the same way Mansuetus of Urusi
(Henchir Sougga) was burnt in the Porta Fomitana. At this time the
city of Hippo Regius (Annaba), which the blessed Augustine, worthy
of all praise, governed as its pontiff, was besieged.

11 Then that river of eloquence, * 11 which flowed richly over all the
fields of the church, dried up in the midst of its course, and the
pleasant sweetness, so sweetly provided, was turned to bitter absinth,
in accordance with the cry of David: ‘When the sinner stood against me
I became dumb and was abased, and kept silent even from good.’ (Ps
38:2f Vulg) Until that time he had written 232 books, not including his
letters, which are beyond counting, his exposition of the entire psalter

9 ...

For these basilicas. Courtois 1954:42f and Clover 1982a: 9f; the basilica of the Ancestors
is discussed by Frend 1977: 25f. Churches were used as stables in Vandal Africa, according to
cod just 1.27.1.3. although it need not refer to this period.

10 In other words, Pampinianus was bishop of Vita.

11 The expression used here, ‘flumen eloquenliae.’ is employed by Quintillian (inst oral
10.1.61) as well as Augustine himself (civ dei 19.4). Victor subsequently applies the term
‘eloquentiae fluvius’ to Cicero (3.61).

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECU TION

and the gospels, and his sermons to the people which the Greeks call
‘homilies’, the number of which it is quite impossible to establish. 12

12 Why say many things? After these wild and frenzied acts of
wickedness Geiseric gained and entered Carthage, that great city, and
reduced to slavery its old class of free men, freeborn and noble; for his
captives included not a few of the senators of the city. 13 He thereupon
published a decree that each person was to bring forward whatever
gold, silver, gems and items of costly clothing he had, and so in a short
time the greedy man was able, by means of this device, to carry away
property which had been handed down from fathers and grandfathers.

13 He also made an arrangement concerning the individual provinces:
Byzacena, Abaritana and Gaetulia, and part of Numidia he kept for
himself; Zeugitana and the proconsular province he divided up as ‘an
allotted portion for his people’ (I Chron 16:18); and he allowed
Valentinian, who was still emperor, to take for himself the remaining,
and now devastated, provinces. 14 After Valentinian died 15 he gained
control of the coastline of all Africa, and with his customary arrogance
he also took the large islands of Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Ibiza,
Mallorca and Menorca, as well as many others.

12 Augustine died on 23 August 430. during the Vandal siege of Hippo (Brown 1967:432).
although there is no need to connect his passing with the Vandals. The estimate of his output
follows his own reckoning (retract 2.93, with ep 224.3. where there is the same gloss on 'sermons
to the people').

13 Carthage fell on 19 October 439; for Geiseric's activities there. Prosper Tiro chron s.a.

439.

14 Victor’s description of the division of Africa is confirmed by other classes of evidence:
Courtois 1935:218-20. Abaritana seems to have been to the south of Gaetulia. itself to the south
of Numidia (Desanges 1963: 49-56). Zeugitana was another term for the proconsular province
(cod just 1.27.1.12); Victor's use of 'et' immediately after 'Zeugitana' is therefore awkward, but
cf below 1.29, 1.39. For the sortes Vandalorum, the establishment of which obviously involved
the dispossession of the landowning class, see Procopius BV 1.5.12-15; Vandal settlement is
discussed by Koenig 1981:340f. Valentinian III had become emperor in 425.

15 Valentinian III was killed in Rome on 16 March 455.

VICTOR OF VITA

14 One of these, namely Sicily, he later conceded to Odovacer, the
king of Italy, by tributary right. 16 At fixed times Odovacer paid tribute
to the Vandals, as to his lords; nevertheless, they kept back some part
of the island for themselves. Moreover, Geiseric was by no means slow
to enjoin the Vandals to put bishops and noble laity to flight from their
churches and residences, completely naked. And if they were slow to
leave when given the choice, they were to stay behind as perpetual
slaves. This is something which happened to many people, for we know
of many bishops and laity, clan and honorati, who are slaves of the
Vandals.

15 But then he ordered that the bishop of the aforementioned city,
that is, Carthage, a person well known to God and man, whose name
was Quodvultdeus, and a great throng of the clergy, were to be placed
naked on dangerous ships. Having been despoiled, they were to be
driven away. In his merciful goodness the Lord graciously brought them
to Naples, a town in Campania, after a safe passage. Geiseric badly
treated a great number of senators and honorati, cruelly exiling them
in the first place and subsequently driving them to lands beyond the
sea. 17 When the bishop had been driven out, together with the
venerable clergy, as we said above, he immediately delivered the church
called Restituta, in which the bishops had always had their throne, over
to his own religion, and he carried away all the churches which were
inside the walls of the town, together with their wealth. 1 *

16 But he also seized whatever churches he wanted to outside the
walls, in particular two unusual and spacious ones dedicated to the holy
martyr Cyprian, one where he shed his blood and the other where his

Odovacer. spelt by Victor 'Odvacer', came to power in Italy in 476, and was murdered
by Theoderic the Ostrogoth in 493.

17 Exiles are discussed by Courtois 1933: 281f. Note the case of Gordianus, the grandfather
of the theologian Fulgentius, one of the senators Geiseric forced to sail to Italy after they had
lost all their wealth (PC 63: U9A). For Quodvultdeus, sec Mandouze 1982: 949; his lib prom
is extant (SC lOlf).

1S The carrying away of all the churches is hard to accept in the light of Victor 1.25. On
the basilica Restituta, apparently the cathedral church, Courtois 1954: 43n.l52. Koenig suggests,
on the basis of Vandal names on epitaphs, that Augustine’s cathedral at Hippo Regius was taken
over by the Vandals (1981:341).

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

body is buried, at a place called Mappalia. 19 But who could put up
with this, and be able to recall it without tears: he ordered that the
bodies of our dead were to be taken for burial in silence, without
solemn hymns. 20 More was to follow: the part of the clergy which still
remained was also driven into penal exile.

17 While these things were going on, the remaining bishops and
distinguished men of the provinces we have mentioned as having been
divided up among the Vandals decided they would approach the king
to implore his favour. When, in accordance with his custom, he had
gone away to the shore of Maxula (Rades), which is commonly called
Ligula, these people were seen coming to beseech him that, the
churches and goods having been already lost, he give the people of
God some comfort by allowing them at any rate the right to reside
where the Vandals now held power.

18 It is established that that man replied to them through a
messenger 21 with insane words: "1 decreed that no-one of your
reputation and birth was to be allowed to remain here, and you dare
to ask for such things?" He even wanted to have them plunged into the
nearby sea then and there, but his followers kept on asking him for
quite some time not to do this. They went away consumed with sorrow
and grief, and began to celebrate the divine mysteries in ways open to
them and places where it was possible, their churches having been
taken away. Thereafter, as the kingdom grew in wealth, the king’s pride
began to grow as well and to increase.

19 I shall mention something which happened at this time. There was
a count Sebastian, subtle in counsel and valiant in war, son-in-law of

730 -

See on these mysterious churches Ennabli 1975: 12-16; Duval 1982: 675-77.

Pastorino suggests that Geiseric issued this order in the interests of public order (1980:

I see no reason to translate ‘internuntius’ as 'interpreter', unlike e.g. Stein 1959: 320.

VICTOR OF VITA

the well-known count Boniface. 22 Geiseric, just as he deemed his
counsels necessary, dreaded being in his presence. He longed to put an
end to him, and found a pretext for killing him in religion. The king
decided to address Sebastian while his bishops and household officers
were present. "Sebastian," he said, "I know that you have sworn to
support us faithfully, and your toils and diligence show that your oath
was true. But so that your friendship may always remain linked with us
and constant, I have resolved, in the presence of our bishops, that you
are to become a follower of the religion which we and our people
venerate."

20 Sebastian devised something wonderful which would be useful for
many people. He gave a wise reply in accordance with the
circumstances: "Lord king, I beg that a loaf of the finest white bread be
brought now." Geiseric, unaware of the victory Sebastian was to win,
straightaway ordered that it be brought. Sebastian took the fine white
bread and said: "To become so splendid and something considered
suitable for the king’s table, this bread, after the worthless bran was
shaken from the heap of fine wheat flour, was sprinkled and passed
through water and fire. For this reason it is considered fair to look at
and pleasant to eat.

21 "In the same way I, ground in the mill of the Catholic mother 23
and cleansed like pure flour through the sieve of examination, was
moistened by the water of baptism and cooked by the fire of the Holy
Spirit. And through the agency of the divine sacraments God brought
it about that I rose from the font pure, just like this bread from the
oven. But, if it please you, let what I suggest be done. Let this bread
be broken in pieces, moistened with water and made wet a second
time, let it be put in the oven: if it comes out better, I shall do as you

Sebastian’s odd career is summarized in PLRE 2: 984. In 437 Geiseric put to death four
of his advisers from Spain who refused to become Aria ns: Prosper Tiro chron s.a. 437; a letter
from bishop Antoninus of Constantine to one of them is preserved: PL 50: 567-70. But in this
case and that of Sebastian religion seems to have been a pretext rather than the point at issue.

As do other authors, Victor sometimes omits the expected ’church’ (cf e.g.Optatus 1.11,
7.6, CSEL 26: 14.3,178.7; Augustine conf 9.37; Victor 3.23.) Sebastian's speech makes no
mention of the Trinity but turns on rebaptism, and thus anticipates a major theme of Victor’s
work. With this, compare the conclusion of de tempore barbarico ii PLS 3: 298.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

suggest." Geiseric, when he and all those present had heard this
proposal, was so entangled that it would have been impossible for him
to have freed himself. Afterwards, on some other grounds, he had the
warlike man put to death. 24

22 But let us return to the point from which we digressed. By his
deadly commands he caused terror, so that in the midst of the Vandals
our people were quite unable to breathe. No place for praying or
offering the sacrifice was conceded to these people in their grief, so
that there was openly fulfilled the prediction of the prophet: ‘In this
time there is no prince or prophet or leader, nor a place to sacrifice to
your name.’ (Dan 3:38 Vulg) For every day saw fresh pieces of trickery
which also affected those bishops who dwelt in regions which paid
tribute to the palace. If perchance someone, as is the custom in
sermons to the people of God, had named Pharaoh, Nabuchodonosor,
Holofemis or someone similar, they accused him of having said such
things against the person of the king, and immediately drove him into
exile. 25 For this was the nature of the persecution being waged, here
openly and there covertly. Their aim in using such pieces of trickery
was to cause the name of the pious to perish utterly.

23 I knew many of the bishops who were banished for this reason,
such as Urbanus of Girba, Crcscens the metropolitan of the town of
Aquitana, who presided over 120 bishops, Habetdeum of Tcudalis,
Eustratius of Sufes (Sbiba), and two bishops from Tripolitania, Vicis of
Sabrata (Sabratah) and Cresconius of Oea (Tripoli), and also Felix the
bishop of the town of Hadrumentum (Sousse), who had received a
certain John, a monk, from overseas; 26 but there were also many
others, of whom it would take long to tell. Nevertheless, when those
who had been placed in exile died, others were not permitted to be

24 Hydalius dates the death of Sebastian to 450 (chron s.a.).

25 On sermons, see PL 42: 1122f (Herod), PL 51: 796, 810C, PLS 1: 288-94 (the Holy
Innocents); see furtherCourcelle 1964:137n.l; Courtois 1955:286. It may not be accidental that
the lib prom of the exiled Quodvultdeus discusses both Pharaoh and Nabuchodonosor, nor that
Victor concludes the following chapter with a reference to the people of Israel under Pharaoh.

26 Schmidt suggests that the monk was probably an agent of the Byzantine court (1942:

93 ).

VICTOR OF VITA

ordained for their towns. Despite this, in the midst of these things the
people of God remained steadfast in the faith, and, like a swarm of
bees building dwellings of wax, it was strengthened as it grew with the
honeyed pebbles of faith, so that there might be fulfilled that text: ‘The
more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew in
strength.’ (Ex 1:12)

24 After these things had taken place, the supplication of the emperor
Valentinian brought it about that, after the long silence of desolation,
a bishop named Deogratiaswas ordained for the church at Carthage. 27
If anyone tried to itemize what the Lord did through him, he would
run out of words before he could explain anything. But, after he had
been made bishop, because of our sins it came to pass that Geiseric, in
the fifteenth year of his reign, seized Rome, the city until then most
noble and renowned. At that time he took into captivity the wealth of
many kings, as well as people. 28

25 When the throng of captives reached the shore of Africa, the
Vandals and Moors divided the huge mass of people into groups. 29
Husbands were separated from wives and children from their parents,
in accordance with the custom of barbarians. That beloved man who
was filled with God busied him self immediately. He sold all the gold
and silver vessels used in worship and freed the freeborn people from
being slaves of the barbarians, so that spouses would remain together
and children be returned to their parents. And because there were no
places large enough to hold such a throng, he set aside the two sizeable

Deogratias became bishop of Carthage on 24 October 454 (Mandouze 1982: 271).

Geiseric’s possible motives for the expedition against Rome in 455 are discussed by
Courtois (1955: 19); the scale of the plunder is suggested by Procopius BV 1.5.3-5, 2.9.5 and
Victor of Tunnunna chron s.a. 455. Almost a century later Jordanes described Geiseric as 'very
well known’ for his sack of Rome: get 168. See in general Bela (1979). It is a little odd to find
the expedition to Rome dated to the fifteenth year of Geiseric’s reign, for he had become king
in 428. But the expedition occurred within the fifteenth year of the capture of Carthage, and
Victor was probably using this mode of calculation, which accounts for his later attributing to
Geiseric a reign of 37 years and three months (1.51). Procopius also used his entry into Carthage
as a basis for reckoning (BV 1.730).

On the Moorish tribespeople, see the contributions of M. Mahjoubi (pp. 491ff) and P.
Salama (pp. 507ff) in Mokhtar 1981, and Whittaker 1978.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

basilicas we have named, that of Faustus and that of the Novae, with
beds and straw, deciding each day how much it was proper for each
person to receive. 30

26 Because most of them had been weakened by sailing, an experience
with which they were unfamiliar, and by the harshness of their captivity,
there was no small number of sick people among them. That blessed
bishop acted like a good nurse. He continually went on rounds with the
doctors, and food was brought behind him, so that when each person’s
pulse had been taken, that person might be given what was needed, in
his presence. He did not even rest from this merciful work in the hours
of night, but he went on, hurrying from bed to bed, enquiring as to how
each was doing. So it was that he took on him self every burden, sparing
neither his weary limbs nor his decayed old age. 31

27 The Arians, inflamed by spite at this, used many tricks and
frequently attempted to kill him. I believe that the Lord, in his
foresight, wished to free his sparrow from the hands of those hawks
quickly. 32 The captives brought from Rome bewailed his death, for
this reason: when he went to heaven, they thought that they would be
delivered into the hands of the barbarians. He had carried out the
duties of bishop for three years. Moved by their love and desire for
him, the people would have snatched the limbs of the worthy body had
he not been buried when he died, and had not the multitude been kept
in ignorance, in accordance with wise advice.

28 One should never remain silent concerning the wicked things done
by the heretics, and there can be nothing shameful in something which
contributes to the praise of one who suffers. So: one of those who had

The basilica Fausti was the church in which Deogratias had been ordained bishop
(Prosper Tiro, chron cont cod reich 25, MGH AA 11: 490.) Presumably it assumed the functions
of a cathedral after the confiscation of the Restituta (above 1.15; Courtois 1954: 44; note that
it is where Eugenius later performed the Epiphany baptisms (2.48-50) and that it is called
‘ecclesia’ below at 2.18 and 3.34, and the more general ‘basilica’ at 2.48.) Literaiy references to
the basilica Novarum are provided by Courtois 1954: 43.

31 For ‘cariosa senectus', see Ovid amor 1.12.29.

For the dating of the death of Deogratias to before the end of 457, Mandouze 1982:

27 If.

VICTOR OF VITA

ordained the abovementioned bishop, whose name was Thomas, was
quite often harassed by their various plots. One day, in full view of
everyone, they flogged the venerable old man. But he, considering that
it was not a cause for shame but the price of his glory, rejoiced in the
Lord.

29 So it came about that, after the death of the bishop of Carthage,
they forbade the ordination of bishops for Zeugitana and the
proconsular province. There used to be 164 of them, but little by little
this number has diminished, and now they seem to number just three,
if indeed these survive: Vincent of Zigga, Paul of Sinnari, truly a Paul
in merit as well as name, and one other, Quintianus, who fled
persecution and now lives as a foreigner at Edessa, a town in
Macedonia.

30 But it is clear that there were also a great many martyrdoms and
a huge and numerous throng of confessors; I shall try to tell a few
things about them. 33 There were, at that time, some slaves who
belonged to a certain Vandal, one of the Vandals called ‘millenarii’, 34
Martinianus, Saturianus and their two brothers, as well as a fellow
slave, a noteworthy handmaid of Christ called Maxima, who was
beautiful in both body and heart. And because Martinianus was the one
who made his weapons 35 and always held in high regard by his lord,
while Maxima was mistress over the entire household, the Vandal
thought that he would unite Martianus and Maxima in marriage, in
order to make these members of his household more faithful to
himself.

On the distinction between ‘martyr’ and ‘confessor’, Delehaye 1927: 74-121. At 3.21
Victor uses ‘martyr’ in the old sense of a witness to the faith in time of persecution, with a
meaning similar to ‘confessor’, and note that Cyprian epp. 10 and 15 are addressed to ‘martyrs
and confessors.’ Note in the following tale how Victor calls the chief catholic protagonists by
their own names, whereas their antagonist is simply called ‘Vandalus’ or ‘barbarus*.

34 On the title ‘miUcnarius’, Claude 1971. Somewhat oddly, Diesner sees in the
circumstances of this millenarius a transitional stage from a slave-owning to a feudal society
(1966: 120).

35 For the office of armourer, Cassiodorus var. 7.18f.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

31 Martinianus, in the way of young men of this world, wanted to be
married, but Maxima, who was already dedicated to God, had no desire
for a human marriage. When they came to approach the quiet privacy
of their bedroom and Martinianus, ignorant of what God had decreed
for him, desired, with the boldness of a husband, to lie with her as with
a wife, the abovementioned handmaid of Christ replied to him in a
lively voice: "O brother Martinianus, I have dedicated the limbs of my
body to Christ, and as there is a heavenly and true being to whom I am
already betrothed, I cannot enter into a human marriage. But I shall
give you some advice. If you want to, you as well will be able to gain
him, while it is allowed, so that you too may have the delight of serving
the one whom I have longed to marry."

32 So by the Lord’s doing it came to pass that the young man was
obedient to the virgin, and he too profited his soul. 34 While the
Vandal remained ignorant of the spiritual secret they shared,
Martinianus, feeling compunction and now a changed man, persuaded
his brothers that, inasmuch as they were brothers, they should possess
in common the treasure which he had found. And so, after his
conversion, 37 he and his three brothers, accompanied by the maiden
of God, secretly went forth by night to join the monastery of Tabraca
(Tabarka), over which that noble shepherd Andreas then presided. 3 *
She went to live in a convent of maidens not far away.

33 The barbarian began to carry out an investigation. He made
enquiries and distributed numerous gifts, and what had happened could
not be hidden. So it was that, discovering them to be not his slaves but
those of Christ, he threw the servants of God into chains and inflicted
various torments on them, his purpose being not so much to make
them have intercourse but, something worse, to make them defile the
ornaments of their faith through the filth of rebaptism. This came to
the notice of Geiseric. The king decreed that the implacable master

The motif of an unconsummated marriage often occurs in early ascetic literature.

‘Conversus* is used here in a sense approaching its medieval meaning of one who has
become a monk in adult life.

34 On monasticism in Vandal Africa, see Diesner 1964: 140-48.

VICTOR OF VITA

was to keep afflicting his slaves for as long as it took for them to yield
to his will. He ordered that strong cudgels were to be made which had
jagged edges like palm branches, in the manner of saws: as these beat
upon their backs they would not only break their bones but, as the
spikes bored through them, would remain inside them.

34 As their flesh was torn in pieces the blood poured out and their
inner parts were exposed to view, but on each occasion, as Christ
healed them, they were restored unharmed on the next day. This
happened quite often, over a long period, and no traces of their
wounds were to be seen, the Holy Spirit curing them immediately.
After this a harsh imprisonment was imposed on Maxima and she was
cruelly stretched out on a ‘spear’. 39 The throng of the servants of God
who had been visiting her was still there and, as everyone looked on,
the putrefaction caused by the enormous pieces of wood vanished. The
voices of all made this miracle known, and the man responsible for her
custody testified to me on oath that this is what happened.

35 But when the Vandal refused to recognize divine power, avenging
grace began to operate in his house. He and his children died at the
same time, and the best from among his household and his animals
perished as well. The lady of the house was therefore left a widow,
bereft of her husband, children and fortune, and she offered the
servants of Christ as a gift to a relative of the king, Sersao. The latter
received the people offered to him with joy, but a demon began to
trouble his children and the members of his household severely with
various disturbances on account of the holy ones. In turn, his relative
reported to the king what had happened. Immediately the king decreed
that they were to be sent to a king of the Moors, a pagan who bore the
name Capsur; so it was that they were banished. 40 But he freed
Maxima, the handmaid of Christ who had put him to shame and
overcome him, to do as she wished. She lives on, a virgin and the
mother of many virgins of God, and is by no means unknown to me.

'Cuspis', apparently the only use of this word by any Latin writer to designate an
instrument of torture.

See on the geography Courtois 1954: 37f, who suggests that Capsur’s kingdom was in
the region between Capsa (Gafsa) and Negrinc.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

The others arrived and were handed over to the king of the Moors we
have mentioned, who was living in a part of the desert which is called
Caprapicta.

36 The disciples of Christ, seeing the many forbidden and sacrilegious
sacrifices carried out by the pagans, began by their preaching and way
of life to invite them to the knowledge of the Lord our God, and by
this means they gained an enormous multitude of pagan barbarians for
the Lord Christ, in a place where the fame of the Christian name had
hitherto been spread by no-one. Then they gave thought as to what
should be done, so that the field which had now been cultivated and
cleared of grass by the ploughshare of preaching might receive the seed
of the gospel and be watered by the rain of holy baptism. 41

37 They sent messengers across the long roads of the desert. At last
they came to a Roman town 42 and the bishop was asked to send a
priest and junior clergy to the believing people. The pontiff fulfilled
their request with joy: a church of God was built, a great throng of
barbarians was baptized all together, and from those who had been
wolves an abundant flock of lambs was multiplied. Capsur sent a report
of this to Geiseric. His ill will was aroused, and he ordered that the
servants of God were to have their feet bound behind the backs of four
running horses and perish together in the thorny places of the woods,
the bodies of those innocent ones, as they were dragged to and fro,
being cut to pieces by the spikes of the thorn bushes in the woods. He
also ordered that they were to watch each others’ deaths, one after the
other.

38 When, in turn, they caught sight of each other, the unbroken horses
running nearby as the Moors beat them, each one, in his difficult
situation as the horses sped, said farewell in this fashion: "Brother, pray

Verbal parallels between this section and a passage in Rufinus are pointed out by Wynn
1990:193.

Augustine was aware of the failure of the Christian religion to penetrate the interior
regions of Africa which were not under Roman power (ep 199.12.46; see too Optatus 3.3, CSEL
26:74). Leclercq (1904a: 179, 1904b: 358) is certainly wrong in taking the ‘civitas Romana' to be
Rome, and provides the sentence with papal connotations by so misunderstanding it.

VICTOR OF VITA

for me; God has fulfilled our desire. This is the means by which the
kingdom of heaven is reached." And so they sent forth their devout
souls with prayer and psalms, as the angels rejoiced. Until this day our
Lord Jesus Christ has not ceased to work mighty wonders there. For
the blessed Faustus, a former bishop of Buruni (Henchir ed Dakhla),
testified to me that a blind woman received her sight there in his
presence.

39 After these happenings Geiseric was inflamed against the church
of God. He sent one Proculus to the province of Zeugitana, to force
the priests of the Lord to hand over the objects used in divine service
and all the books. First the crafty foe took away their arms, so that
when they were defenceless he would be able to capture them more
easily. When they cried out that they would not hand these over, they
took everything away with their greedy hands, and from the altar cloths,
what wickedness! they made shirts and breeches for themselves. But
Proculus, who carried this out, chewed up his tongue into little pieces
and after a short time had passed suffered a most shameful death.

40 Then an order was given that the holy Valerian, bishop of the town
of Abensa (Bordj-Hamdouna), who had struggled manfully so as not
to hand over the things of God, was to be driven outside the town by
himself, and it was decreed that no-one was to allow him to live in
either a house or a field. For a long time he lay on a public road, in
the open air. He was more than 80 years old, and despite my
unworthiness I was privileged to be able to pay my respects to him
while he was undergoing such an exile.

41 At one time when the solemnity of Easter was being celebrated, the
Arians learned that our people had opened a church which had been
shut at a certain place called Regia, so they could celebrate Easter
Day. Straightaway one of their priests, whose name was Anduit, got
together a band of armed men and incited them to attack the throng
of the innocent. They went in with swords drawn, they snatched arms;
others climbed onto roofs and fired arrows through the windows of the
church. Just then, as the people of God were listening and singing, a

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

lector was standing on the platform chanting the Alleluia. 43 At that
moment he was struck by an arrow in the throat. The book fell from
his hand, and he himself fell backwards, dead.

42 It is known that many others were killed by arrows and javelins
right in front of the altar, and those who were not slain by the sword
received harsh treatment at the king’s command and were nearly all
put to death, especially those who were older. For elsewhere, as
happened at Tunuzuda, Gales (Henchir el-Kharrouba), Vicus
Ammoniae and some other places, at the time when the sacraments
were offered to the people of God they went in wildly, scattered the
Body and Blood of Christ on the floor and stamped on it with their
filthy feet.

43 At that time Geiseric, urged on by his bishops, decreed that only
Arians were to be placed in the various offices within his and his sons’
court. This was the experience which then befell our Armogas, among
others. Over a long period they frequently bound around his shins
strings which made a jangling noise, and they ripped into his forehead,
on which Christ had fixed the standard of his cross, so that it looked
wrinkled, or rather ploughed, while they made noises as if they were
animals. But as the holy man looked towards heaven the strings were
broken as if they were the threads of spiders’ webs. When the torturers
saw that the strings which had bound him were broken, they kept on
bringing stronger strings and pieces of hemp, but he simply invoked the
name of Christ and they were all as nothing. Moreover, while he was
made to hang with his head downwards, supported by one foot,
everyone saw him sleeping as if he were on a feather bed.

44 The punishments had not been severe enough, and the king’s son
Theoderic, who was his lord, ordered that he be beheaded. But he was
restrained by his priest Jucundus, 44 who said to him: "You have the
power to kill him with torments of different kinds, but if you slay him
with the sword, the Romans will begin to preach that he is a martyr.”

On the liturgical singing of the Alleluia in the season of Easter. Augustine serm 252.9.9.
Jucundus' relationship with Theoderic was to bring him to a sad end; see below 2.13.

VICTOR OF VITA

Then Theodcric condemned him to digging ditches for vines in the
province of Byzaccna. Afterwards, as if to his greater shame, he
ordered that he was to be a cowherd not far from Carthage, where he
would be seen by everyone.

45 In the midst of these things Armogas perceived, by a revelation
from the Lord, that the day of his falling asleep was at hand. He
summoned Felix, a Christian worthy of reverence, the superintendent
of the household of the king’s son and a man who venerated him as if
he were an apostle, and said to him: "‘The time of my death is near.’
(II Tim 4:6) Of your kindness I entreat you, by the faith we both hold,
to bury me under this carob tree; if you do not do this, you will render
an account to our Lord." This was not because he cared where or how
his body was buried, but so that what God had revealed to his servant
might be made manifest.

46 Felix answered and said: "Far be this from us, venerable confessor!
I shall bury you in one of the basilicas in triumph and with the
thanksgiving which you deserve." The blessed Armogas replied: "No, do
as I have said." Fearing to make the man of God sad, he promised that
what he had ordered would, in truth, be done. Very shortly, within a
few days, he departed this life, accompanied by a good confession. 45
Felix hastened to give him the burial he had commanded under the
tree. The intertwined roots and the hardness of the dry soil slowed him
down and he found the work painful, so that the burial of the limbs of
the holy body proceeded rather slowly. Finally, when the roots had
been cut back, they dug into the earth much more deeply and caught
sight of a sarcophagus, all ready and made of the most splendid
marble, such as, perhaps, none of the kings had had.

47 And I must not pass over a chief pantomime named Mascula. He
was harassed with many cunning traps to make him abandon the
catholic faith, and later the king himself invited him to do this, coaxing
him with worldly speech. He promised that great wealth would be

Here, and later, ‘confessio' means a confession, not of sin, nor of praise, but of faith.
For the use of this word in Augustine, see the note, by A. Solignac, to M. Skutella's edition of
the Confessions, Paris 1962 p. lln.2.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

heaped upon him, if he were to give a favourable hearing to what he
wanted. But when he remained strong and unconquered in the faith,
the king ordered that he was to undergo capital punishment.
Nevertheless, in his cunning way he secretly enjoined that if, at that
time, Mascula was frightened by the blow of the quivering sword, he
was to be killed, so that he would not be turned into a glorious martyr,
if, on the other hand, he remained strong in his confession, the sword
was not to be used. But, with Christ giving him strength, he was made
strong, like a column which could not be moved, and came back a
glorious confessor. Even if the envious enemy refused to make him a
martyr, nevertheless he was not able to inflict injury on our
confessor. 46

48 We know of another man of that time, whose name was Saturus.
A shining member of the church of Christ, with catholic freedom he
often reproved the Arians for their perversity; he was the
superintendent of the household of Huniric. Saturus was cited on the
complaint of one Marivadus, a deacon whom the wretched Huniric
held in signal honour, 47 and it was decided that he was to become an
Arian. Honours and wealth in abundance were promised if he did this;
dire punishments were to be prepared if he refused. This was the
choice placed before him: if he did not obey the king’s commands, an
examination was to be conducted. First of all he would lose his house
and wealth, and all his slaves and children would be sold; then, while
he was present, his wife would be given in marriage to a camel driver.

49 But he, filled with God, provoked those wicked people so that
things would be set in train more quickly. For this reason his wife,
without the knowledge of her husband, thought that she would seek
some delay from those who were acting in the matter. Another Eve,
directed by the counsel of the serpent, she came to her husband. But
he was no Adam who would touch the alluring fruit of the forbidden

A similar motif in Gregoiy of Tours hist franc 2.3. although here applied to bishop
Eugenius. Gregory does not emerge well from a comparison of his data with those of Victor;
see below at 2.47.

47 Marivadus may plausibly be identified with a deacon against whom Vigilius of Thapsus
wrote a book (PL 62: 226D, 351).

VICTOR OF VITA

tree, because his name was not Needy 44 but Saturus, having been
saturated by the riches of the household of God and having drunk from
the torrent of his delights, (cf Ps 35:9) The wife came to a place
where her husband was praying by himself. She had rent her garments
and let down her hair, their children were with her and she carried in
her hands a little girl who was still at the breast. She placed her at the
feet of her unknowing husband, while she herself embraced his knees
with her arms and hissed with the voice of a snake: 49 'Take pity on
me, sweetest, and on yourself as well; take pity on the children we
share, whom you see here. Those whom descent from our stock has
made renowned should not be allowed to become slaves. And I should
not be subjected to an unworthy and shameful marriage while my
husband is alive, I who have always thought myself fortunate among
those of my age because of my Saturus. God knows that you will have
done against your will something which others may well have done
voluntarily".

50 That Job answered her with the voice of a saint: "‘You arc speaking
just as one of the foolish women.’ (Job 2: 10) 50 I would be afraid,
woman, if the bitter sweetness of this life were the only thing. You are
the servant, wife, of the cunning of the Devil. If you loved your spouse,
you would never entice your own husband to a second death. Let them
sell the children, let them take my wife from me, let them carry away
all my wealth; trusting in his promises, I shall hold fast to the words of
my Lord: ‘If anyone does not give up his wife, children, fields or house,
he cannot be my disciple.’" (cf. Luke 14:26) Why say more? His wife,
rebutted, went away with the children, and Saturus was strengthened
to receive his crown. He was examined, lost his property, was wearied
by punishments and sent away a beggar, forbidden to appear in public.

Indigens.

I have not sought to express in the translation the sibilant qualities of the speech of
Saturus' spouse.

Rather than yielding to the tempting of his wife, as Adam did to that of Eve, Saturus
replies as Job did to his wife, who advised him to curse God and die (or. as translated in the
Vulgate, to bless God and die). On Job being a more appropriate role model than Adam,
compare a letter of bishop Antoninus (PL 50: 567).

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

They took everything from him, but they were not able to carry off the
stole of baptism.

51 After these things Geiseric ordered that the church of Carthage was
to be closed and its priests and junior clergy scattered and dispersed to
different places of exile, because there was no bishop. Thanks to the
supplication the ruler Zeno made through the patrician Severus, it was,
with difficulty, opened again, and so they all returned from exile. 51
What he did in Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Campania, Calabria, Apulia,
Sicily, Sardinia, Bruttium, Lucania, Old Epirus and Greece, those who
suffered there things which are to be lamented will better tell. 52 But
let this now be the end of the persecution waged against us by Geiseric,
with as much pride as cruelty. His reign lasted for 37 years and three
months.

51 The mission of Severus, which apparently occurred in 474 (Courtois 1954:54 n.231) and
marked a more conciliatory phase in Byzantine policy towards the Vandals, is also known from
Malchus frag 5, trans R. C. Blockley, The fragmentary classicizing historians of the later Roman
empire I jverpool 1983 (= frag 3 according to the traditional enumeration), which provides fuller
details. It is curious that in this passage Victor styles Zeno ‘princeps’ rather than ‘augustus' or
‘imperator*.

52 Geiseric’s ravages are known from Procopius BV 1.5.22f, 1.7.26.1.22.16-18; Priscus frag
52 Blockley (= frag 40 according to the traditional enumeration); V Dan styl 56; Gregory of
Rome dial 3.1; Nestorius The bazaar of Heracleides p. 379.

VICTOR OF VITA

BOOK 2

1 Following the death of Geiseric, his eldest son, Huniric, succeeded
his father. 1 In accordance with the subtlety of the barbarians, at the
beginning of his reign he began to act in quite a mild and moderate
fashion. This was particularly so with respect to our religion, so that
meetings of the people were held even where it had previously been
decided under king Geiseric that spiritual assemblies were not to take
place. And, to show that he was a man of religion, he decreed that the
Manichaean heretics were to be sought out with painstaking care. 2 He
had many of these people burned, and he sold more of them for ships
across the seas. He found that nearly all the Manichaeans were
adherents of his religion, the Arian heresy, especially its priests and
deacons; so it was that, the greater his shame, the more he was kindled
against them.

2 One of them, a monk of theirs called Clementianus, was found to
have a piece of writing on his thigh: ‘Mani, the disciple of Jesus Christ.’
The aforesaid tyrant seemed quite worthy of praise for this reason, but
in one matter he gave cause for dissatisfaction: he gazed about eagerly
and with a cupidity which could not be satisfied, and burdened the
provinces of his kingdom with various pieces of trickery and taxes, so
that of him in particular it was said: ‘A king in need of revenues is a
great trickster.’ 3 At the request of the emperor Zeno and Placidia,
the widow of Olybrius, he gave the church of Carthage freedom to

1 Huneric succeeded Geiseric following the death of his father on 25 January 477. In the
text I reproduce the spelling of his name given by Victor. Our author literally terms Huneric the
elder (maior) son of Geiseric, but he knew of two other sons (below, 2.12). A similar usage
occurs at 2.13 and 2.14.

The Manichaeans were disciples of Mani, a dualist teacher of the third century.

3 Luxorius, writing later under the Vandals, composed two epigrams on Eutychus, the
extortionate servant of a Vandal king (55f, ed Rosenblum p. 144); note in particular the motto
‘regis habenda.'

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

ordain for itself whomever it wished as bishop. At that time the church
had been deprived of such an ornament for 24 years. * * * 4

3 So it was that he now sent to the church the vir inlustris Alexander,
to discharge an embassy to this effect: in his presence, the catholic
people was to seek for itself a worthy bishop. He also sent, through his
notary named Vitarit, an edict to be read out in public. Its contents
were as follows: "The Lord orders this to be said to you. Because the
emperor Zeno and the most noble Placidia have written through the
vir inlustris Alexander seeking that the church of Carthage may have a
bishop proper to your religion, he orders that this is to be done.

4 "He has written back to them and ordered that the legates sent by
them are to be told that you are to go ahead and ordain the man you
want as your bishop, in accordance with what they have sought. There
is one condition: the bishops of our religion who are at Constantinople
and throughout the other provinces of the East are to have, at his
command, the right to preach to the people in whatever languages they
wish in their churches 5 and to practise the Christian religion, just as
you will have this right, here and in the other churches which are in the
provinces of Africa, to celebrate mass, preach and do the things which
pertain to your religion, in whatever way you wish. 6 Now, if this is not
observed concerning them, the order is given for both the bishop who
will have been ordained and the clergy, together with the other bishops
with their clergy who are in the African provinces, to be sent among
the Moors."

The mission of Zeno’s legate Alexander is known from Malchus frag 17 (ed Blockley;
frag 13 according to the traditional enumeration); on the date see below n.8 to 2.6. Zeno was

emperor from 474 to 491; Placidia, a daughter of the emperor Valentinian III (above 1.13), had

been among the captives Geiseric took from Rome in 455. and was sent from Africa to

Constantinople in c.461 (references in PLRE 2: 887).

5 On the use of the vernacular among barbarian peoples converted to Christianity, John
Chiysostum in PG 85: 501. It is possible to see adherence to Arianism and to a non-classical
language as statements of identity by culturally insecure barbarian peoples.

6 The uncoordinated structure of this passage is typical of the style of Huncric's edicts
reproduced by Victor. In the interests of lucid English I have broken one sentence of the Latin
into two.

VICTOR OF VITA

5 I was present on 18 June when the edict was read to the whole
church, and we began to groan softly, because the cunning plots of evil
men had laid the ground for persecution in the future. And it is well
known that the legate was told: "If this is so, and these dangerous
conditions are put forward, it does not please this church to have a
bishop, for Christ, who has always been pleased to govern it, governs
it still." The legate paid no attention to what we said. At this the
people flared up like a fire for things to go ahead then and there; their
ciy was insufferable, and no arguments were able to quieten them
down.

6 The ordination of Eugenius, a holy man pleasing to God, as bishop
produced the greatest dehght, and the joy of the church of God was
complete. 7 The catholic multitude rejoiced that they had been given
the right to ordain a bishop again while the barbarians held power. For
a great number of youths and young girls, sharing the joy they had in
common, affirmed that they had never seen a bishop presiding from his
throne. Henceforth bishop Eugenius, that man of God, began, thanks
to his practice of good works, to be considered worthy of veneration
and reverence even by those who were outside his flock, and such was
the favour he enjoyed with everyone that, if it had been right, each
person would have delighted to lay down his life for him .

7 The Lord was also pleased to bring about through him the giving of
alms on such a scale that his expenditure seemed unbelievable,
considering that the resources of the church, at a time when the
barbarians held everything, were down to the last sesterce. If anyone
were to begin, he would be unable to give a full account of the humility
that was his, of his charity, and of the goodness bestowed on him by
divine providence. It is well known that money never stayed with him,
unless it happened to have been offered at the time when the sun, at
the completion of the course of the day, yields and gives place to the
darkness of the night. He kept as much as would suffice for a day, not

Eugenius became bishop in 430/81, the see having been vacant since the death of
Deogratias in 456/57 (Mandouze 1982: 362). His name suggests a Greek origin, and Courtois
suggests that he came to Carthage with Zeno’s legate Alexander (1954:21f), although this seems
a little strained.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

as much as greed would have desired, and daily our God gave him
large, and still greater things.

8 But when his reputation had spread everywhere and was generally
known, the bishops of the Arians, especially Cyrila, began in
consequence to be afflicted with a great deal of jealousy. Each day they
railed at him with false accusations. Why say more? They made a
proposal to the king concerning him, that he should on no account
preside from his throne and preach to the people of God as usual; and
then, that he should forbid the entry of any men or women in
barbarian clothes who were seen going into the church. That man
replied, as was right, "The house of God is open to all, and no-one
should turn away people going in." This was especially so because a
huge number of our Catholics who served in the royal household used
to go in dressed like Vandals.

9 When the king received this answer from the man of God, he
ordered that torturers were to be stationed at the entrances to the
church; when they saw a woman or man who looked like one of their
race going there, they were straightaway to thrust tooth-edged stakes
at that person’s head and gather all the hair in them. Pulling tightly,
they took off all the skin from a person’s head, as well as the hair.
Some people, when this happened, immediately lost their eyes, while
others died just from the pain. After this punishment the women, their
heads stripped of skin, were paraded through the streets, with heralds
going before them, so that the whole town could see. But they
preferred to count those things which they suffered as their great gain.
I became acquainted with very many of them, and I do not know of
one who abandoned the right path, even under the impact of these
punishments.

10 Being unable to break down the wall of faith in this way, he
decided that the people of our religion who held positions at his court
were to receive neither their rations nor their usual pay. Then he
proceeded to wear them down with work in the country, sending
freeborn and quite delicate men to the fields around Utica, to cut away
the sods of the harvest under the fire of the burning sun. They all
proceeded there with joy, rejoicing in the Lord.

VICTOR OF VITA

11 In their company there was a man with a withered hand which had
been of no service to him for many years. When he, in all truth,
excused himself as being unable to work, he was the more violently
ordered to proceed. But when they reached the place and all groaned
in prayer, especially for him, by divine goodness the confessor’s hand
was restored, in good condition. From this point the persecution of
Huniric, which was to bring us sorrow and travail, took its beginning.

12 This man, who had until then shown himself mild to everyone,
wished to assign the kingdom to his sons after his death; as it happened
this did not come to pass. He began to persecute in a cruel fashion his
brother Theoderic and the children of this man, and equally the
children of his brother Genton. * * 8 Not one of these would he let go,
unless death carried out what he desired. First of all, the tyrant ordered
that, after a charge had been laid against her, the wife of his brother
Theoderic, a woman he knew to be cunning, was to be killed with the
sword; I believe that this was in case she should arm her husband and
their elder son, who seemed sensible and wise, with more pointed
counsels against the tyrant.

13 Afterwards that son, who had received a higher education, 9 was
killed as well; to him in particular, according to the enactment of
Geiseric, the chief rule was due among his nephews, because he was
the eldest of them all. He was then stirred up to do something still
more cruel. He ordered that a bishop of his religion named Jucundus,
whom they called the patriarch, was to be consumed by fire in the
middle of the town on the steps of the new square, as the people stood
by. This was because he had been a most welcome visitor in the house
of the king’s brother Theoderic, and with his assistance the
aforementioned house would, perhaps, have been able to obtain the
office of king. In this wicked crime we perceived that the evil which
was going to befall us was close at hand, and we said to one another:

On succession arrangements among the Vandals, Courtois 1955: 238ff. Details of the

constitutio of Geiseric, mentioned by Victor in the following paragraph, are provided by Jordanes

get 169 and Procopius BV 1.7.29.

Riche 1976: 64 discusses the openness of Vandal aristocrats to classical culture.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

"How is a man who has come to be so cruel towards his own bishop
going to spare our religion and us?"

14 T hen he sent into exile Godagis, the eldest son of Genton, together
with his wife, without a slave or handmaid to help them. In the same
way he exiled his brother Theoderic, naked and in want, after his wife
and son had been murdered. After Theoderic died he drove far away
in affliction his surviving little son and his two grown-up daughters,
seated on asses. But he also harassed very many counts and nobles of
his race with false charges, because they were supporters of his brother.
He had some burned, and he cut the throat of others, showing himself
an imitator of his father Gciscric, who drowned the wife of his brother
by throwing her, tied to heavy stones, into the well-known Amsaga
River at Cirta (Constantine), and went on to kill the children after the
death of their mother. 10

15 Now his father Geiseric, as he was dying, had commended many
people to Huniric, making him swear an oath; but that man, unmindful
of his good faith and in violation of the oath, slaughtered these people
with tortures of different kinds and with fires. For he shamefully
beheaded one Heldica, whom his father had made superintendent of
his kingdom and who was now an old man of many years, and he had
his wife burned, together with another woman called Teucharia, in the
middle of the town. He ordered that their bodies were to be dragged
through the lanes and streets; only in the evening, after they had been
lying a whole day, did he reluctantly agree to the request of his bishops
and allow them to be buried. He was not able to kill Gamuth, the
brother of Heldica, because he had taken refuge in one of then-
churches; nevertheless he shut him up in the cesspits, and ordered that
he remain in that dirty place for a long time.

16 Afterwards he condemned him to dig ditches to be used for the
planting of vines, in the company of a certain goatherd and a country
fellow. In addition, he had them set about with harsh whips twelve

10 These would have been the wife and children of Gunderic, who died in 428 and was
succeeded as king of the Vandals by his half-brother Geiseric. The new king's activities against
his family are known from no other source.

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times a year, that is, on a monthly basis, and they were scarcely allowed
a drink of water or bread to eat. For five years or more they endured
this, men for whom their sufferings would have sufficed to obtain an
eternal reward if they had been Catholics who endured these things
because of their faith. But this has not led us to keep quiet about it,
and pass over in silence the wickedness of the king towards his own
people as well. Not only did he commit his bishop Jucundus to the
flames, as we have shown above, but he also had very many priests and
deacons of his, that is, Arians, burned and delivered to the beasts.

17 Having therefore in a short time disposed of all those he feared
and made his reign secure, as he thought, although it was to be brief
and transitory, and being thoroughly at leisure and free of trouble,
‘roaring like a lion’ (cf Ps 21:14) he turned all the missiles of his rage
towards a persecution of the catholic church. Nevertheless, prior to the
time" of persecution, the evil which impended was revealed by the
many visions and signs which preceded it.

18 Some two years before it took place, someone saw the church of
Faustus shining with its usual adornments of shining candles, cloth
coverings and glowing lamps. And while he was taking delight in so
radiant a splendour, suddenly, he said, the light, so wonderfully bright,
was extinguished, and in the darkness which followed there arose a
stench terrible to smell; and all the throng of the blessed was driven
outside by threatening Ethiopians. That he would never see the church
restored again to its original brightness was something to be lamented
without ceasing. I was present when he related that vision to the holy
Eugenius. And a priest saw that same church of Faustus crammed with
throngs of people beyond counting; a little while later it was empty,
and then it was filled again with a multitude of pigs and nanny-goats.

19 Likewise, someone else saw a threshing floor of wheat ready for the
winnowing, the grains having not yet been separated from the chaff in
accordance with the judgment of the winnower. And while he was

11 'Tempestas'. although the original meaning of ‘storm’ would also be appropriate here.
According to Victor of Tunnunna, Huneric's persecution, more savage than that of his father,
was excited two years after he became king (chron s.a. 466).

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

marvelling at the size of the huge mass still mixed together, suddenly,
behold! a whirlwind approached with a stormy noise which could be
heard far away, and the dust rose as it began to make its presence felt.
Under its impact all that chaff flew about, but the grains remained.
Afterwards there appeared an impressive figure, his face shining and
his bright attire gleaming. He began to cast forth the grains which were
empty, thin and no good for flour, clearing them away. He spent a long
time carefully going through that enormous mass; when he had put it
to the test it was reduced to a tiny pile.

20 Likewise, someone else said: "A certain person who towered above
Mount Ziquense was crying out to right and left ‘Go away, go away!’"
Someone else caught sight of sulphurous clouds in a thundering,
turbulent sky which began to throw down huge stones. When these
stones had fallen onto the ground they were kindled the more and
burned with greater flames; they went inside houses and set the people
they encountered on fire. The person who saw this said that when he
had hidden himself in a bedroom, by divine mercy the blaze was not
able to reach him, and I think that this was so that this prophecy would
be fulfilled: ‘Shut your door and hide for a while, until the wrath of
God passes.’ (Is 26:20)

21 And the venerable bishop Paul saw a tree which reached to the
heavens with its flowering branches, big enough to cover almost all
Africa with its shade. And while everyone was rejoicing at its size and
beauty, behold, suddenly, he said, there came a savage donkey which
rubbed its neck over the bottom of the trunk, and as it shoved it
knocked that wonderful tree to the ground with a mighty noise.

22 The honourable bishop Quintianus saw himself standing on a
mountain from which he could see the flock of his innumerable sheep,
and in the middle of the flock were two pots, boiling fiercely. But there
drew near people who slew the sheep and plunged their flesh into the
boiling pots. And in the course of this, all that enormous flock was
destroyed. I think that those two pots are the two towns Sicca Veneria
(Kef) and Lares (Henchir Lorbeus), in which the multitude was first
brought together and from which the fire took its beginning, or else

VICTOR OF VITA

king Huniric and his bishop Cyrila. But I must be brief, so may it be
enough to have said this much concerning the many visions.

23 Why say more? First of all the tyrant decreed, in a dreadful
command, that no-one could hold an office in his palace or carry out
public duties without becoming an Arian. There was a great number of
people in these positions who, unconquered in their strength,
abandoned temporal office so that they would not lose their faith;
afterwards they were cast out of their homes, despoiled of all then-
possessions, and banished to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. On one
occasion he hurriedly issued a decree throughout all Africa that the fisc
was to claim as its own the possessions of our dead bishops, and that
the successor of a dead bishop could not be ordained until he had paid
500 solidi to the royal fisc.

24 But where the Devil strove to erect this building, straightaway
Christ saw fit to pull it down. His household officers pointed out to
him: "If your precept gives sanction to this, our bishops who are in the
territory of Thrace and other regions will begin to suffer worse things."
Thereafter he ordered that the consecrated virgins were to be gathered
together, and sent the Vandals, with the midwives of his race, to
examine and feel their private parts, contraiy to the laws of modesty,
when neither their mothers nor any women at all were present. 12 They
tortured them by hanging them in a cruel way and tying heavy weights
to their feet; they applied glowing plates of iron to their backs, bellies,
breasts and sides.

25 While they were enduring these sufferings they were told: "Say that
the bishops and your clergy used to go to bed with you." We know that
very many of them died then because of their harsh punishments;
others, who survived, were bent over because their skins were dried
out. For he strove to find a path which would give him an opening for
launching a persecution, as he in fact did. But by doing this he was
unable to find any way to dishonour the church of Christ.

Surely the Vandal midwives (obstetrices) were women?

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

26 But with what floods of tears shall I proceed? He sent bishops,
priests, deacons and other members of the church, to the number of
4,966, to exile in the desert. 13 Among them were very many who had
gout, and others who had lost their worldly sight through age. Among
their number was the blessed Felix, bishop of Abbir (Henchir el-
Khandaq), who had then been a bishop for 44 years; having been struck
with the disease of paralysis he did not feel anything, nor was he
capable of speech.

27 We gave deep thought to this person, because he could not be
carried on a beast of burden, and we suggested that the king be asked
by his people to order that this man, soon to die, remain at Carthage,
because there was no way in which he could be taken into exile. The
tyrant is said to have spoken in a rage: "If he cannot sit on an animal,
let untamed bulls be yoked to take him where I have ordered by
dragging him along, fastened with ropes." We bound him crossways on
a mule like the trunk of a tree, and in this manner we carried him with
us for the whole journey.

28 Everyone was brought together in the towns of Sicca and Lares so
that the Moors, who came to meet them there, would lead them to the
desert after they had been handed over. 14 Two counts came up, and
with damnable cunning they began to talk with the confessors of God
in smooth words. "Why does it seem good to you," they said, "to be so
stubborn, and why are you disinclined to comply with the orders of our
Lord? For you would be considered worthy of honour in the sight of
the king if you were to huny to act in accordance with his will."
Immediately they cried out and said with loud voices: "We are
Christians, we are Catholics, we confess the Trinity, one God
inviolable." They were shut up in a place of custody which, while

13 Victor of Tunnunna mentions that about 4,000 were banished, including monksand laity
(chron s.a. 479). Geographical aspects are examined by Courtois 1954: 38f.

It is interesting to observe that Justinian was to erect defensive buildings to deal with
the Moors at Sicca: Procopius build 6.7.10.

VICTOR OF VITA

unpleasant, was still fairly spacious, and we were able to go in and give
the brothers words of advice and celebrate the divine mysteries. 15

29 There were many little children in that place, and their mothers
followed them with maternal affection, some rejoicing and others
summoning their children back; for some rejoiced that they had given
birth to martyrs, while others strove to call back from the confession of
faith those who would die from the deluge of rebaptism. Nevertheless,
their coaxing words defeated no-one, and ties of the flesh made no-one
bend to the ground. And it is with pleasure that we give a brief account
of what one old woman did then.

30 When we were making our way in the company of the army 16 of
God and generally advancing by night because of the heat of the sun,
we caught sight of a little woman carrying a little sack and other
garments, holding by the hand a little child 17 whom she was
encouraging with these words: "Run, my lord; you see how all the holy
men are moving forward and hastening, full of gladness, towards their
crowns." And when we rebuked her, because she did not seem fit on
the grounds of her sex to be in the company of men or to be associated
with the army of Christ, she replied: "Give your blessing, give your
blessing, and pray for me and this little grandson of mine, because even
though a sinner I am the daughter of a former bishop of the town of
Zura." We said to her: "And why do you walk in such a mean fashion,
and why, as it appears, have you come on such a long journey here?"
And she replied: "I am going into exile with this little one, your servant,
lest the enemy come upon him all alone and call him back from the
way of truth to death." At these words we were filled with tears and
could say nothing other than "May God’s will be done."

31 The enemy was perhaps already saying ‘I shall divide the spoils, I
shall fill my soul, I shall kill with my sword, my hand shall have

From this it appears that, while Victor accompanied the confessors, he was not of their
number. Leclercq 1904b: 373 twists the Latin badly to make him a confessor.

16 'Exercitus' is used elsewhere by Victor in the sense of ‘people' (1.13, 3.60), which is a
possible translation here.

17 Note the use of diminutives here.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

dominion’ (Ex 15:9), but when he found himself unable to catch a
single one he sought out cramped and exceedingly loathsome places,
so that he could narrowly confine the army of God in these enclosed
areas. Then they were even denied the consolation of visitors, for
guards with cudgels were placed at the doors and beat them harshly,
and as there was so little space the confessors of Christ were thrown
one on top of the other, like hordes of locusts and, to use an
appropriate term, the most precious grains of some crop.

32 Crowded together in this way, there was no room for people to step
aside to answer the call of nature, and so they excreted and urinated
when they had to, just where they were, so that the filth and horror of
it were worse than any kind of punishment. With some difficulty we
were once allowed to go in secretly, after we had given enormous gifts
to the Moors and while the Vandals were asleep. Entering something
like the abyss of a mire, we began to be immersed up to our knees, and
saw that the statement of the prophet Jeremiah had then been fulfilled
in that place: ‘Those who were raised on saffron have embraced their
own excrement.’ (Lam 4:5) Why say more? With the Moors making a
loud noise on every side, the order was given to prepare them for the
journey which had been settled on for them.

33 And so they went forth on a Sunday, their clothes, together with
their faces and heads, smeared with excrement. Although they were
cruelly treated by the Moors, they sang with joy a hymn to the Lord:
‘This is glory for all his saints.’ (Ps 149:9) It was then that the blessed
pontiff Cyprian, the bishop of Unizibir, approached them. An excellent
comforter, he encouraged them individually with an affectionate and
fatherly kindness, not without rivers of flowing tears, prepared to ‘lay
down his life for the brothers’ (I Joh 3:16) and of his own accord to
deliver himself up to like sufferings, if he were allowed. He spent all
that he had on his needy brothers in their present necessity, for he
sought a way of being associated with the confessors, being a confessor
himself in spirit and virtue. Subsequently, after many contests and
squalid times in prison, he proceeded with joy to his longed for exile.

34 The roads and paths bear witness to the size of the throngs of
people from various regions and towns who ran to meet the martyrs of

VICTOR OF VITA

God; these were by no means large enough for the mass of people on
the move, who ran together across the tops of the mountains and along
the valleys. A throng of the faithful too large to count came down.
Carrying candles in their hands and casting their little children at the
feet of the martyrs they cried out, saying: "To whom are you leaving us,
wretches that we are, while you go on your way to crowns? Who is
going to baptize these little ones in the font of ever-running water?
Who will bring us the gift of penance and loose those bound by the
chains of sins with the absolution of reconciliation? 1 * For to you it was
said, ‘Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ (Matt
18:18) Who will bury us with solemn prayers when we die? By whom
will the usual rite of the divine sacrifice be offered? Were it permitted,
we would like to go forth with you, so that there would be no need for
the children to be separated from their fathers."

35 While they were saying these things and crying, no-one was allowed
to go forward to console them, but the throng was forced to move
quickly, so that they would be able, with difficulty, to take up a lowly
lodging where some poor accommodation had already been prepared.
When the elderly and others, such as delicate youths, happened to
falter, they started to find themselves being struck with the points of
spears and stones to make them run, and the weaker they were the
more weary they became.

36 But later, the order was given to the Moors that they were to tie
together the feet of those who could not walk and drag them, like the
corpses of dead animals, through harsh and bitter stony places, where
first their clothes and then their limbs were torn off one by one,
because of the swordlike sharpness of the stones. In one place a head
was smashed, while in another ribs were split, and so they breathed out
their spirit amid the hands of those who were dragging them. We have
been quite unable to establish how many of them there were, their very

18 The usage of ‘reconciliation* in this sense is common in the African councils; see CCSL
259: 419, sub verbis ‘rcconciliarc’ and ‘rcconciliatio’.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

number preventing it; nevertheless, all along the public road mean
graves were raised for the holy ones, as the burial mounds tell us. 19

37 The remainder, who were more fit, arrived at the uninhabited
places, and when they were there they received barley to eat, as if they
were beasts of burden. 20 It is said that there was such a large number
of poisonous animals and scorpions there that it would seem
unbelievable to those who do not know about it; these are creatures
which, by their breath alone, pour poisonous venom even on those far
away. And they say that no-one has ever survived the attack of a
scorpion. But we have learned that, up to the present time, the
savageuess of their poison has not harmed one of Christ’s servants,
thanks to his defence of them. And whereas at first they were fed with
grains of barley, later even this was taken away - as if God, who caused
manna to rain on the fathers, was not able as well to provide food for
those now subjected to the same kind of exile! 21

38 The tyrant turned his mind to more violent actions against the
church of God, so that having cut off some of the limbs he could
destroy the whole body by tearing it in pieces. For on the day of the
Ascension of the Lord, 22 in the presence of Rcginus, the legate of the
emperor Zeno, he sent to bishop Eugenius an edict which was to be
read out in the middle of the church. Its contents were as follows; he
also forwarded it, by speeding post horses, to the whole of Africa. 23

39 "Hunirix, king of the Vandals and Alans, to all the homousian
bishops. 24 It is well known that not once but quite often your priests

The relevance lo this of the Uppena mosaic (ed Fiebiger, Inschriflensammlung 1939 no.
15, = CIL 8: 23 041), accepted by Courcelle (1964: 191n.3, with plate 13), has been denied by
Courlois 1955: 295n.l7 and, by implication, Duval 1982: 59-67.

20 But cf Procopius BV 2.6.13 on the diet of the Moors.

21 The rain of manna on the Israelites is described in Ex 16 and Num 11.

22 20 May 483.

23 On the post horses, Oiesner 1968.

24 Wolfram 1967: 78, in the context of a discussion of the significance of this form of
words for intitulature, argues for the authenticity of this document and another reproduced
below (Victor 3.3-14) because of the spelling 'Hunirix'. contrary to Victor's customary

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have been forbidden to celebrate any liturgies at all in the territory of
the Vandals, in case they seduce Christian souls and destroy them.
Many of them have despised this and, contrary to the prohibition, have
been discovered to have said mass in the territories of the Vandals,
claiming that they hold to the rule of the Christian faith in its fullness.
And because we do not wish for scandal in the provinces granted us by
God, therefore know that by the providence of God and with the
consent of our holy bishops we have decreed this: that on the first of
February next you are all to come to Carthage, making no excuse that
you are frightened, so that you will be able to debate concerning the
principles of faith with our venerable bishops and establish the
propriety of the faith of the Homousians, which you defend, from the
divine scriptures. From this it will be clear whether you hold the faith
in its fullness. We have sent a copy of this edict to all your fellow
bishops throughout Africa. Given on 20 May 483 in the seventh year
of Hunirix."

40 As soon as those of us who were present came to know this as it
was read out, ‘our heart was forthwith broken and our eyes grew dim’
(Lam 5:17), and in truth, ‘the days of our festival were turned to
sorrow and our songs to lamentation’(Amos 8:10), since the contents
of the edict revealed that a raging persecution was to come, especially
where it said ‘we do not wish for scandal in the provinces granted us
by God,’ as if it were saying ‘we do not wish there to be Catholics in
our provinces.’ We discussed what was to be done. No remedy for the
calamity which threatened was to be found, except for the proposal, a
reasonable one were it possible for a barbarian’s heart to be softened,
made by the holy Eugenius. The text follows.

41 "Whenever a discussion is held concerning the soul, eternal life and
the Christian faith, it is necessary that the subject of the enquiry be
dealt with without fear, just as the royal providence has promised. The

‘Huniricus’ (but note that he uses 'Hunirix’ at 3.17.) One cannot help noticing that the form
‘Rex Hunirix’ is scarcely euphonious. See further on the chancellery of the Vandal kings
Heuberger 1929. For the later king Gelimer as 'king of the Vandals and Alans*, see an
inscription ed. Fiebiger/Schmidt (1919 no.51, = CIL 8: 17 412) and Procopius BV 1.24.3, and
note too the title of the Laterculus regutn Wandalorum et Alanorum.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

royal power has recently seen Gt to admonish my humble self through
the notary Vitarit, who recited his edict dealing with religion and faith
in the church, in the presence of the clergy and people. We learned
from its contents that the royal order has similarly been sent out to all
my fellow bishops, so that they may come together to dispute
concerning the faith on the given date. This, have we advised, is to be
respectfully obeyed. My humble self proposed to the aforesaid notary
that he should recognize my colleagues, including those of all the
regions across the sea, who are united with us in one religion and
communion, because all people everywhere comply with his authority,
and in particular because this is an affair of the whole world, not
merely of the African provinces alone. 25

42 "And because I promised in a subsequent reply that I would offer
a proposal, with proper humility I ask your magniGcence that he see Gt
to convey my aforementioned proposal to the ears of the lord and most
clement king. So it will be that his clemency may realize that we by no
means decline to dispute concerning religion with the help of God, nor
do we avoid this, but we should not undertake the task of defending
our faith without the agreement of the whole body. We ask that he
may see Gt to approve this, with that liberality which renders him so
great and the justice of his wisdom. Given by Eugenius, bishop of the
catholic church at Carthage."

43 But when this proposal was put forward by the blessed Eugenius,
he who had ‘already conceived anger’ was now the more seriously
driven to ‘give birth to iniquity.’ (Ps 7:15) So it was that he commanded
the holy man, bishop Eugenius, through Obadus, the superintendent of
his kingdom: "Subdue unto me the whole world so that all the earth is
brought under my power, Eugenius, and I shall do what you say." To
this the blessed Eugenius replied as best he could. "Something which
has no sense,” he said, "should not have been uttered. This is like
saying to a man that he should be carried through the air and fly,
which is not in accordance with human nature. For I said that, if in his

Diesner (1966: 79f) suggests that Eugenius sought to turn the meeting into an
ecumenical council.

VICTOR OF VITA

power the king desires to know of our faith, which is the one and true
faith, he should send to his friends, while I should write to my brothers,
so that there might come my fellow bishops, who, together with us,
might succeed in explaining to you the faith we have in common, and
in particular the Roman church, which is the head of all the churches."

44 To these words Obadus replied: "Are you therefore like my lord the
king?" Bishop Eugenius said: "I am not like the king, but I said: If he
wishes to know the true faith, let him write to his friends so that they
may send our catholic bishops here, and let me write 26 to my fellow
bishops, because it is the common concern of the catholic, universal
church." Eugenius acted in this way, not because people capable of
refuting the charges of our enemies were lacking in Africa, but so that
there would come people who, being foreigners, would have greater
assurance of being free from their power, and by the same token would
make known to all lands and peoples the false basis on which we are
oppressed.

45 But the one who was weaving plots did not wish to listen to reason.
Acting frequently on pretexts, he troubled those bishops whom he had
heard were learned with various hardships. Already he had sent into
exile Sccundianus of Mimiana 27 , having subjected him to 150 blows
with clubs, as well as Praesidius of Sufetula (Sbeitla), a very clear¬
sighted man. Then he had the venerable Mansuetus, Germanus,
Fusculus and many others set upon with cudgels.

46 While these things were going on he ordered that no-one was to
share a table with those of our religion; in fact, in no circumstances
were people to eat with Catholics. This conferred no benefit on them,
but was of the greatest advantage to us. For if ‘their speech,’ as the
apostle says, ‘is accustomed to crawl like a crab’ (cf II Tim 2:17), how
much more would sharing a table of food be able to bring defilement,
since the same apostle says ‘do not share food with the wicked.’ (cf I
Cor 5:11)

'Scribo\ although the subjunctive or future would make more sense.
On the form of this place name, consult Mandouze 1982:1049.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

47 But when the fire of persecution was already kindled and the flame
of the attacking king burned everywhere, our God displayed through
his servant Eugenius a miracle which I must not pass over. In that same
town of Carthage there was a certain blind man, a citizen very well
known in the town, whose name was Felix. This man was visited by the
Lord and was told by him in a vision one night, when the day of the
Epiphany was dawning, "Rise, go to my servant bishop Eugenius, and
tell him that I have sent you to him. And at the time when he blesses
the font so that those coming to the faith may be baptized, he will
touch your eyes. They will be opened and you will see the light.” 2 *

48 Having been instructed by this vision, the blind man believed that
he had been deluded by a dream, as often happens, and decided not to
get up. But while he was sinking back to sleep, he was urged in the
same fashion to go to Eugenius. Again he paid no attention, and a
third time he was threatened, speedily and fiercely. He roused the boy
who usually guided him by the hand, and went with all speed to the
basilica of Faustus. When he came there he prayed with many tears
and asked a deacon, Peregrinus by name, to announce his arrival to the
bishop, indicating that he had a secret of some kind to make known to
him.

49 Hearing of this the bishop ordered the man to come in. Because of
the feast day that was being celebrated, the hymns of the night were
already resounding throughout the church as the people sang. The
blind man told the bishop the story of his vision and said to him: "I will
not let you go until you let me have my sight back, just as you have
been ordered by the Lord." The holy Eugenius said to him: "Depart
from me, brother, for I am an unworthy sinner (cf Luke 5:8) and a
wrongdoer above all men, seeing that even in these times I have been
preserved."

50 But that man held onto his knees and said nothing beyond what he
had said earlier: "Restore my sight to me, as has been ordered."

** Another miracle story involving Eugenius and a blind man, or perhaps another veision
of the same story, is told by Gregory of Tours, hist franc 2.3.

VICTOR OF VITA

Eugenius paid attention to his reverent trust and, because time was
now pressing, he proceeded with him to the font in the company of the
officiating clergy. There, immovable on his knees and groaning deeply,
he disturbed heaven with his sobs. He blessed the rippling baptismal
pool, 29 and when he had completed his prayer he arose and replied to
the blind man in this way: "I have already told you, Felix my brother,
that I am a sinful man; but may he who has deigned to visit you act in
accordance with your faith and open your eyes." At the same time he
signed his eyes with the standard of the cross, and immediately the
blind man received his sight, as the Lord gave it back. The bishop kept
him with him until all had been baptized in case the crowd, excited by
such a great miracle, should crush the man who had received the light.

51 Afterwards the miracle was made public throughout the church.
The man who had been blind went forward to the altar with Eugenius
to return to the Lord a thank offering for the restoration of his health,
in accordance with the custom. The bishop received it and placed it on
the altar. In the joy that followed, an uproar which could not be
controlled arose from the people. Immediately, a messenger went to
the tyrant. Felix was seized, and he was asked what had happened and
how he had received the light. He explained everything in proper order,
and the bishops of the Arians said: "Eugenius did this through sorcery."
Overwhelmed with confusion, they could not obscure the light, because
Felix was a public figure well known to the whole city; nevertheless,
they would have killed him, if it had been right, just as the Jews desired
to put Lazarus to death after he had been raised from the dead. 30

52 That day of treachery which the king had appointed, 1 February,
was now drawing near. There came together not only the bishops of the
whole of Africa, but also those of many of the islands, worn out with

'crispantem benedbdt atveum fontis', which I take to refer to the rippling surface of a
body of water large enough for adult candidates for baptism to be immersed in. See the photo
of a lovely sixth centuiy African font in Browning 1971: 131.

An apparent misreading of John 11: 45-53.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

suffering and grief. 31 Silence was observed for many days, until he
separated every skilled and learned man from among them, so that they
could be put to death on the basis of false charges. For he committed
to the flames one of that choir of the learned, whose name was Laetus,
a vigorous and most learned man, after he had long endured a squalid
imprisonment. 32 He thought that making an example of him would
strike fear into the others and enable him to wear them down.

53 Finally the debate took place, needless to say at a place then-
enemies had selected. Our people chose to avoid the disturbances
which loud voices would have caused, in case the Arians were later to
say that they had been overpowered by weight of numbers, and chose
ten of their number who would answer on behalf of them all. Cyrila,
with his lackeys, most arrogantly placed a throne for himself in a high
place, while our people were standing. And our bishops said: "It is
always pleasant to be at a meeting at which the exaltation of power
does not proudly hold sway, but general consent is arrived at, so that
the truth is recognized from what the judges decree, in accordance with
the actions of the parties. But who is to be the judge on this occasion,
who will weigh the evidence so that the scales of justice may confirm
what has been argued well or show unsound propositions to be
false?" 33

54 While these and other things were being said, the king’s notary
answered: "The patriarch Cyrila has named some people." Our people,
abominating the proud and unlawful title which he had usurped, said:
"Read out to us who gave permission for Cyrila to take this title for

31 The bishops are named in the Notitia provinciarum civitatum Africae, which is known
from one ninth centuiy ms and a lost ms whose readings are preserved in a book of the
sixteenth century, and edited by Halm and Petschenig in their editions of Victor. The document
is discussed by Courtois 1954: 91-100.

The martyrdom of Laetus was known to Victor of Tunnunna (chron s.a. 479, 534,
followed by Isidore of Seville hist vand 83).

33 The Catholics seem to have feared that Cyrila, seated, would be their judge. It is
instructive to compare with this account the importance attached to body language by the
participants in the conference of Carthage in 411 (Brown 1967: 332ff).

VICTOR OF VITA

himself!" 34 At this our enemies made a loud clamour and began to
bring false accusations. And because our people had sought that, if the
throng of sensible people were not allowed to ask questions, they could
at least look on, the order was given that aU the children of the
catholic church who were present were to be beaten with a hundred
blows each. Then blessed Eugenius began to cry out: "May God see the
violence we endure, let him know the affliction we suffer from the
persecutors!"

55 Our people turned round and said to Cyrila: "Say what you intend
to do." Cyrila said: "I do not know Latin." Our bishops said: "We know
very well that you have always spoken Latin; you should not excuse
yourself now, especially since you have set this fire going." 35 And,
seeing that the catholic bishops were better prepared for the debate, he
flatly refused to give them a hearing, relying on various quibbles. But
our people had foreseen this and written a short work concerning the
faith, composed quite fittingly and with the necessary detail. They said:
"If you wish to know our faith, this is the truth we hold." 36

THE BOOK OF THE CATHOLIC FAI TH

56 We are enjoined by a royal command to provide an account of the
catholic faith which we hold. So we are setting out to indicate briefly
the things which we believe and proclaim, aware of our lack of ability
but supported by divine assistance. We recognize, then, that the first
thing we must do is give an explanation of the unity of the substance
of the Father and the Son, which the Greeks call homousion.

Gregory of Tours was not even prepared to concede to Cyrila the title of bishop, but
termed him a priest (hist franc 2.3).

35 In view of the progress of Latin among the Vandals and other barbarian peoples,
Cyrila’s claim that he did not know Latin can hardly be taken seriously.

36 Gennadius asserts that Eugenius composed an exposition of the catholic faith which it
is tempting to identify with the following document. But Eugenius’ name is not among those
given at 2.101. An interesting letter of Eugenius to the Catholics of Carthage is preserved by
Gregory of Tours, hist franc 2.3, but its contents are quite different to those of the Book of the
catholic faith.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

Therefore: we acknowledge the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in
the unity of the divine nature in such a way that we can say with a
faithful confession that the Father subsists as a distinct person, and the
Son equally exists in his own person, and that the Holy Spirit retains
the distinctiveness of his own person, not asserting that the Father is
the same as the Son, nor confessing that the Son is the same as the
Father or the Holy Spirit, nor understanding the Holy Spirit in such a
way that he is the Father or the Son; but we believe the unbegotten
Father and the Son begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Father 37 to be of one substance and essence,
because the unbegotten Father and the begotten Son and the Holy
Spirit who proceeds have one divine nature in common; nevertheless,
there are three distinct persons.

57 A heresy arose and brought forth something new against this
catholic and apostolic faith. It maintained that the Son was not born of
the substance of the Father but came into being from no existing
things, that is, out of nothing. To refute and completely destroy this
wicked profession which had come forth against the faith, a Greek
word, homousion , was coined. This means ‘of one substance and
essence,’ and signifies that the Son was not bom from no existing things
nor from any substance, but of the Father. Therefore, whoever thinks
that the word homousion is to be laid aside wishes to assert that the
Son came to exist out of nothing. But if the Son is not ‘of nothing,’ he
is without doubt of the Father, and rightly homousion, that is, of one
substance with the Father.

58 That he is of the Father, that is, of one substance with the Father,
is demonstrated by these testimonies. The apostle says: ‘who, while he
is the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance, also
upholds all things by the word of his power.’ (Hcb 1:3) And again God
the Father himself, reproving the bad faith of the unbelievers who did
not wish to hear the voice, abiding in his substance, of the Son who
spoke through the prophets, said: ‘They have not heard the voice of my

37 The Spirit is seen as proceeding from the Father, but not from the Father and the Son
(filioque), the position adopted in later western theology; so too below at 2.93.

VICTOR OF VITA

substance.’ (cf Jer 9:10 Vulg) And when the voice of his substance was
despised, he rebuked them with a terrifying declaration, speaking to the
same prophet and saying: ‘Take up a lament on the mountains and a
dirge on the paths of the desert, because they are in want, for they are
not men. They have not heard the voice of my substance, from the
birds of heaven to the herd.’ (cf Jer 9:10 Vulg) And again he rebuked
those who, falling away from the acknowledgement of one substance,
did not wish to stand firm in the same substance of faith, saying: ‘If
they had stood firm in my substance and given heed to my words I
would certainly have directed them from their evil path and from their
wicked thoughts.’ (cf Jer 23:22) And again he declares in a most open
way that the Son is to be confessed as not foreign to the substance of
the Father, but to be considered faithfully in the mind’s eye as being
in the same substance, when the prophet says: ‘Who has stood firm in
the substance of the Lord and heard his word?’ (cf Jer 23:18)

59 Therefore, that the Son is the substance of the Father was formerly
indicated by the prophetic oracles. As Solomon says, ‘for you showed
your substance and your sweetness, which is yours in the Son’ (cf Wisd
16:21); this, in the figure and image of heavenly bread, was seen to
pour out of heaven for the people of Israel. The Lord himself
explained this in the Gospel, saying ‘Moses did not give you bread from
heaven, but my Father gives you bread from heaven’ (Joh 6:32), and he
indicates most surely that he was the bread when he says ‘I am the
living bread which has come down from heaven’ (Joh 6:51), concerning
which the prophet David also speaks: ‘Man has eaten the bread of
angels.’ (Ps 77:25)

60 For indeed, so that the unity of substance which the Father and the
Son have and their equal divinity might be shown still more evidently,
he himself says in the Gospel ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in
me’ (Joh 14:10), and ‘I and the Father are one.’ (Joh 10:30) This does
not merely pertain to a unity of will, but to one and the same
substance, because he did not say ‘I and the Father have one will’, but
‘are one.’ And so his unity with the Father is made clear not so much
from what they will as from what they are. Again, John the evangelist
says: ‘For this reason the Jews sought to kill him, because not only did
he break the Sabbath but he called God his Father, making himself

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

equal to God.’ (Joh 5:18) Now this opinion is not at all to be ascribed
to the Jews, because the evangelist truthfully said of the Son that he
represented himself as equal to God.

61 Again, in the same Gospel it is written: ‘Whatever the Father does,
similarly the Son does the same things.’ (Joh 5:19) And: ‘Just as the
Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son as well gives life
to those he wishes.’ (Joh 5:21) Again: ‘That all may honour the Son,
just as they honour the Father’ (Joh 5:23), for equal honour is only
shown to equals. Again, where the Son says to the Father: ‘All things
that are mine are yours, and all things that are yours are mine.’ (Joh
17:10) Again: ‘Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father as well.
How then can you say "Show us the Father."?’ (Joh 14:9) He would not
have said this if he had not been equal to the Father in all respects.
Again, the Lord himself says: ‘You believe in God; believe also in me.’
(Joh 14:1)

62 Moreover, to show the unity and the equality, he says: ‘No-one
knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father
except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.’
(Matt 11:27) And just as the Son reveals the Father to whom he
wishes, so too the Father reveals the Son, just as he himself said to
Peter when he confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of the living
God: ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood have
not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’ (Matt 16:17)
And again the Son says: ‘No-one comes to the Father, but by me.’ (Joh
14:6) And: ‘No-one comes to me unless the Father who sent me leads
him.’ (Joh 6:44) The equality of the Father and the Son is clear from
this, since they bring believers to themselves reciprocally. Again he
says: ‘If you had known me you would certainly have known my Father
as well; from now on you know him and have seen him.’ (Joh 14:7)

63 But since we acknowledge two natures in the Son, he being true
God and true man, having a body and a soul, we feel that whatever
excellent and sublime power the scriptures speak of as being his should
be ascribed to his wonderful divinity, while whatever is said of the same
person in a more lowly fashion and is beneath the dignity of heavenly
power we take to refer not to God the word but to the humanity he

VICTOR OF VITA

assumed. Therefore, it was with regard to his divinity that he spoke in
the words we quoted earlier: ‘I and the Father are one’, and ‘He who
has seen me has seen the Father as well’, and ‘Whatever the Father
does, in a similar manner the Son does the same things,’ as well as the
other passages contained above.

64 But those passages which speak of him with regard to his humanity
are as follows: ‘The Father is greater than I’ (Joh 14:28), and ‘I have
come not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me’ (Joh 6:38),
and ‘Father, if it can be done, let this cup pass from me’ (Matt 26:39);
also when he says from the cross ‘God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?’ (Matt 27:46) And again, when the prophet speaks in the person
of the Son: ‘You are my God from the womb of my mother’ (Ps 21:11),
or when he is described as ‘less than the angels’ (Heb 2:7, cf Ps 8:6),
and many passages hke these which, for the sake of brevity, we have
not included.

65 Therefore, the Son of God was constrained by no necessary
circumstances, but it was by the unhampered power of his divinity that
in his wonderful goodness he took upon himself those things which are
ours in such a manner that he in no way set aside those things which
are divine, because divinity can neither be added to nor suffer loss.
Whence we thank our Lord Jesus Christ, who for us and for our
salvation came down from heaven 3 * and redeemed us by his passion,
gave us life by his death, and glorified us by his ascension; who, seated
at the right hand of the Father, will come to judge the living and the
dead, to give to the just the reward of eternal life, but to render to the
wrongdoers and unbelievers the punishments they deserve.

66 Therefore, we acknowledge that the Father has everlastingly
begotten the Son from himself in an indescribable way, that is, from
what he himself is, and that he was born not from an extraneous
source, not from nothing, and not from some underlying material, but
from God. And he who is bom of God is nothing other than what the

A form of words simitar to a passage in the Niccne-Constantinopolitan creed; other
examples of borrowing occur below at 2.70 and 2,74.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

Father is, and on that account of one substance with him, because the
reality of his birth does not permit a difference in kind. For if he is of
another substance than the Father, he is either not a true son or,
something dreadful to say, he was bom degenerate. 39 For he is a true
son, just as John says: ‘that we be in his true son.’ (I Joh 5:20 Vulg)

67 But he is not degenerate, because he was bom true God of true
God, just as the same John the evangelist goes on to say: ‘This is the
true God and eternal life.’ (I Joh 5:20) And the Lord himself says in
the Gospel: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ (Joh 14:6) Therefore,
if he does not derive his substance from another source, he takes it
from the Father, if he takes it from the Father, he is of one substance
with the Father. But if he is not of one substance, he is therefore not
of the Father, but comes from another source, since it is necessary that
he derive his substance from whence he comes: for all things were
created from nothing, but the Son is of the Father. Each person may
choose from the alternatives as he pleases: let him credit him with the
substance of the Father, or let him confess that he came to exist out of
nothing.

68 But perhaps someone will make an objection based on the words
of the prophet: ‘who shall tell his begetting?’ (Is 53:8) But I did not
say: "Tell me the means and manner of the divine begetting, and
disclose in human words the secret of such a great mystery", since I was
seeking to know from whence he was bom, not in what manner he was
bom. The divine begetting is indescribable, but not incapable of being
known. For it is not incapable of being known to this extent, namely,
it is not unknown from whence he is, as very often the Father bears
witness that he begat him from his very self and the Son bears witness
that he was bom of the Father, something as to which no Christian can
have the slightest doubt, just as it is shown in the Gospel, when the Son
himself says: ‘For the person who does not believe has already been
judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only begotten
son of God.’ (Joh 3:18) Again, John the evangelist says: ‘And so we

39 ..

*Degener\ although the word means more than ‘degenerate': if Christ were ‘degener'

he would not have been begotten (genitus) of the Father but different in kind (genus).

VICTOR OF VITA

saw his gloiy, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.’ (Joh 1:14)
Therefore, we bring our profession of faith to an end with 40 a short
word.

69 If he was truly born of the Father, he is of one substance with him
and a true son; but if he is not of one substance and is not a true son,
he is not true God. Or, if he is true God and nevertheless is not of the
substance of the Father, it follows that he himself is unbegotten as well.
But because he is not unbegotten he is therefore a creature and, one
would think, if he is not of the substance of the Father, he takes his
existence from another source. But may no-one believe such a thing!
For we acknowledge the Son to be of one substance with the Father,
holding in detestation the Sabellian heresy which makes the Trinity so
indistinct as to say that the Father is the same as the Son and to
believe that the Holy Spirit is the same, not preserving the three
persons in the unity.

70 But perhaps someone will make an objection: given that the Father
is unbegotten and the Son begotten, it cannot be the case that the one
who is unbegotten and the one who is begotten have one and the same
substance. If the Son were unbegotten, just as the Father is, then to be
sure they would not have the same substance, because each of them,
coming to exist independently, would not have a substance in common
with the other. But since the unbegotten Father begat the Son of
himself, that is, of that which he himself is, if indeed what this is can
be said, since the manner of his coming to be cannot be spoken of at
all, it is clear that the begetter and the begotten have one substance,
because we truthfully acknowledge the Son to be ‘God from God and
light from light.’ 41

71 For the apostle John bears witness that the Father is a light, saying:
‘God is a light and there is no darkness in him.’ (I Joh 1:5) Again, he
says of the Son: ‘and the life was a light for people, and a light which

Or perhaps ‘we limit our profession of faith to’.

41 At the price of some awkwardness, 1 have sought to express the argument of this
passage by translating where possible 'lux' as ‘a light' and 'lumen' as ‘the light’.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

shone in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ (Joh
l:4f) And later on: ‘He was the true light which shines on every person
who comes into this world.’ (Joh 1:9 Vulg) From this it is clear that the
Father and the Son are of one substance, since the substances of a light
and the light, namely that which produces from itself and that which is
derived from that which produces, cannot be different. Finally, in case
anyone introduces a diversity of natural light between the Father and
the Son, the apostle speaks of the same Son in this way: ‘while he is the
brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance.’ (Heb 1:3 Vulg)
Here it is taught quite clearly that he is co-etemal with the Father,
inseparable from the Father and of one substance with him, since
brightness is always co-etemal with a light, since brightness is never
separated from the light, and since brightness can never be different to
a light in nature or substance. For the one who is the brightness of a
light is also the strength of God the Father, and so everlasting because
of the eternity of his strength, inseparable because of the unity of the
splendour. 42

72 And this is what we faithfully acknowledge, the Son born of the
substance of the Father, just as God the Father himself makes clear in
a straightforward piece of evidence. To show that he had begotten his
own Son of the substance of his indescribable nature, for the purpose
of instructing our frailty and ignorance, to raise us up from things
visible to those invisible, he used a word which refers to earthly birth
to represent the case of the divine begetting, saying: ‘I have begotten
you from the womb before dawn.’ (Ps 109:3 Vulg) How could the
divinity have deigned to speak more clearly or more revealingly? What
signs, what examples from the things which exist could he have used to
indicate the nature of the begetting more effectively than indicating this
through the use of the word ‘womb’? Not because he is composed of
bodily limbs or endowed with any lineaments and joints, but because
in the recesses of our mind we would not otherwise be able to
understand the truth of the divine begetting if we were not led on by
a term which applies to humans, *womb.’ So there can no longer be any

‘Sempitemus ergo propter virtutis aeternitatcm, inseperabilis propter claritudinis
unitatem’, with which compare Ambrose de fidr 4.9.108: ‘coaeternus propter virtutis
aetemitatem, inseperabilis propter claritudinis unitatem’.

VICTOR OF VITA

doubt that he who is agreed to have come forth from the womb of the
Father was bom of the substance of God.

73 Believing, therefore, that God the Father begat the Son from his
own substance without suffering, we do not say that the substance was
divided in the Son or underwent any diminution in the Father, and so
could have been subject to the imperfection implied by suffering. 43 Far
be it from us to think or imagine such things of God, because we
faithfully acknowledge that the perfect Father begat the perfect Son
without any diminution of himself, without any lessening and without
the slightest weakness which suffering would have implied. For anyone
who reproaches God that, if he begat from himself, he was subject to
the imperfection of being divided, can just as well say that he found the
work hard when he created all things, and that he rested from all his
work on the seventh day for this reason. But he did not experience any
suffering or diminution in begetting from himself; nor was he subject
to any tiredness in creating all things.

74 For in order that the freedom from suffering in the divine begetting
might be made known to us more clearly, we accept that the Son is to
be acknowledged as God from God and light from light. If, therefore,
when the visible light of this world is produced, it is not found that,
when light was derived from light and arose from a kind of birth of
begetting, the original light, having produced another light from itself,
was diminished, and was not entirely capable of sustaining the loss of
the light furnished out of itself, how much more rightly and Fittingly is
this to be believed of the nature of the divine light which is beyond
description and which can in no way be diminished as it begets light
out of itself? Whence the Son, not bom in time but coetemal with the
one who begets, is equal to the Father, just as the brightness begotten
of a fire obviously lasts as long as the fire does. May it suffice to have
said these things concerning the equality of the Father and the Son and
of the unity of their substance, within the bounds which our desire for
brevity has permitted.

I translate ‘passio’ as ‘suffering.’

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75 It remains for us to speak of the Holy Spirit, whom we believe
consubstantial, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Son,
and to prove that he is this with pieces of evidence. For even though
this Trinity, worthy of reverence, is distinct with reference to persons
and names, nevertheless, it should not be believed that it differs from
itself and from its eternity for this reason. Rather, it should be truly
and properly believed that divinity has abided from before time in the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that this Trinity can
neither be divided by interpretations of ours nor, in the opposite
direction, can it be combined and turned into one person. This is our
full faith; this is what we believe.

76 Hence we do not suffer them to be thought of as gods, or called
this, but in the aforesaid persons and names we acknowledge one God.
For the divinity, which is beyond description, did not reveal itself by
means of names and persons so that it can be fenced in and laid hold
of by words: but so that what it was might be known, it gave believers
a partial understanding of itself, which would not be beyond the
limitations of the human mind, in accordance with the words of the
prophet: ‘unless you believe you will not understand.’ (cf Is 7:9) There
is, therefore, one divine nature in the Trinity, and the use of this term
in describing it signifies one substance, but not one person. To establish
the truth of this for the faithful the divinity has always provided many
and very frequent proofs in testimony of itself. We may be allowed,
therefore, in the interests of brevity, to bring forward a few things from
among many, for in truth, there is no need for a large number of
testimonies to demonstrate majesty, even though these may exist, since
for a believer a few things are enough.

77 Firstly, then, we shall teach that the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit are of one substance from the books of the Old Testament, and
afterwards those of the New as well. The book of Genesis begins in this
way: ‘In the beginning God made heaven and earth, but the earth was
void 44 and without form, and darkness covered the abyss; and the

'Invisib ills', whereas the Vulgate has 'inanis'. For the use of ‘iuvisibilis’ in this sense,
TLL 7: 220.20ff.

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Spirit of God was borne above the waters.’ (Gen l:lf) The ‘beginning’
is the one who said to the Jews when they asked who he was: ‘I who
speak to you am the beginning.’ (Joh 8:25 Vulg) The Spirit of God was
borne above the waters in his role as creator, 45 sustaining what had
been created by the strength of his power, so that from these waters he
could accomplish the bringing forth of all living things as he applied
the warmth of his own fire to the rough elements, and so that the
nature of the liquid, with the mystery of baptism shining forth even
then, might receive the power of his sanctification and bring to life the
first living bodies. In like manner David, inspired by God, bears
witness: ‘The heavens were made fast by the word of the Lord, and all
their strength by the Spirit of his mouth.’ (Ps 32:6)

78 See how full this brevity is, and how clearly it refers to the mystery
of the unity. Calling the Father ‘Lord’ and signifying the Son by *word,’
it designates the Holy Spirit the ‘mouth of the highest’ (Sir 24:5). In
case ‘word’ is taken to refer to something produced by a voice, he
asserts that the heavens were made fast through him. And in case
‘spirit’ is thought to refer to breath, 46 he shows that the fullness of
heavenly strength is in him. For where there is strength it is necessary
that a person exists, and where he says ‘all’ he signifies a strength not
taken from the Father and the Son, but made perfect in the Holy
Spirit, so that he does not possess all by himself what is in the Father
and the Son, but so that he possesses in full whatever either of them
has.

79 And again, when the Lord spoke concerning the calling of the
nations, he proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is included within the one
name of the divinity when he says: ‘Go forth and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.’ (Matt 28:19) And again, when the apostle preached to the
Corinthians concerning heavenly things, he added these words: ‘The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship

The fathers frequently identify the ‘spiritus Dei’ of Gen 1:2 with the Holy Spirit; see
among many Augustine conf 13.4.3.

‘Spiritus’ can mean breath as well as spirit.

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of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ (II Cor 13:14) And so that we may
acknowledge more positively the unity of substance in this Trinity, we
should consider as well how God, when he was attending to the
creation of the world and of man, made the mystery of the Trinity
known, when he said ‘Let us make man in our image and likeness.’
(Gen 1:26) By saying ‘our’ he assuredly shows that it was not the affair
of just one person, but when he mentions ‘image and likeness’ he
indicates that the persons who are differentiated are equal. And so that
the same work may contain an open reference to the Trinity in which
plurality is not wanting, and the likeness is not dissimilar, the following
passages say: ‘and God spoke and God acted and God blessed.’ (Gen
1:3,7,28 etc) And it is necessary that one God be the author of the
entire creation.

80 Finally, the old blessing given through Moses, which he was
ordered to use in blessing the people with a mystery of threefold
invocation, expands and confirms this system of faith. For God said to
Moses: ‘Thus you shall bless my people, and I shall bless them: May
the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face to shine
upon you and be merciful to you; may the Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace.’ (cf Num 6:23-26) The prophet David
confirms this very thing, when he says ‘May God bless us, our God,
may God bless us and may all the ends of the earth fear him.’ (Ps
66:7f) This is the unity of the Trinity which the angelic powers on high
venerate in their hymn, and, in the threefold ‘holy, holy, holy Lord God
of hosts’ (Is 6:3) which they sing with unresting lips, they exult his glory
in the summit of one dominion.

81 So that this may be impressed on the understanding of the faithful
still more clearly, we bring forward Paul, a person with knowledge of
heavenly mysteries. For he says: ‘There are different gifts, but the same
Spirit; and different ministries, but the same Lord; and different
workings, but the same God who works all in all.’ (I Cor 12:4-6) It is
certain that, when he distinguished between the various charisms, he
taught that the Holy Spirit brings about these differences and divisions
in accordance with the quality and merit of those who share in them,
for he concludes by saying: ‘But one and the same Spirit works all

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these things, distributing of his own to each one, just as he wills.’ (I Cor

12 : 11 )

82 And so, no occasion for uncertainty is left. It is clear that the Holy
Spirit is also God and the author of his own will, he who is most clearly
shown to be at work in all things and to bestow the gifts of the divine
dispensation according to the judgment of his own will, because where
it is proclaimed that he distributes graces where he wills, servile
condition cannot exist, for servitude is to be understood in what is
created, but power and freedom in the Trinity. And so that we may
teach the Holy Spirit to be of one divinity with the Father and the Son
still more clearly than the light, here is proof from the testimony of
John the evangelist. For he says: ‘There are three who bear witness in
heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are
one.’ 47 Surely he does he not say ‘three separated by a difference in
quality’ or ‘divided by grades which differentiate, so that there is a
great distance between them?’ No, he says that the ‘three are one.’

83 But so that the single divinity which the Holy Spirit has with the
Father and the Son might be demonstrated still more in the creation
of all things, you have in the book of Job the Holy Spirit as a creator:
‘It is the divine Spirit who made me, and the Spirit of the almighty who
teaches me.’ (cf. Job 33:4) And David says: ‘Send forth your Spirit and
they will be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.’ (Ps
103:30) If creation and renewal will take place through the Spirit,
without doubt the beginning of the creation as well was not carried out
without the Spirit. Let us therefore show that after the creation the
Spirit gives life, just as the Father and the Son do. Now, the apostle
relates concerning the person of the Father: ‘I am a witness in the sight
of God, who gives life to all things.’ (cf I Tim 6:13) But Christ gives
life: ‘My sheep,’ he says, ‘hear my voice, and I give them eternal life.’
(Joh 10:27f) But we arc given life by the Holy Spirit, as the Lord
himself says: ‘It is the Spirit who gives life.’ (Joh 6:64) Behold, it is

The famous Johannine comma, occurring in the text of I Joh at 5:8, but certainty not
a part of the original text. The circumstances of its addition remain obscure.

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plainly shown that there is one giving of life common to the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit.

84 No Christian can be unaware that foreknowledge of all things and
knowledge of what is hidden belong to God. Nevertheless, this can be
shown from the book of Daniel: ‘God,’ he says, ‘you know what is
hidden, you who have foreknowledge of all people before they are
bom.’ (Dan 13:42 Vulg) This same foreknowledge is a property of
Christ, just as the evangelist relates: ‘From the beginning Jesus knew
who would betray him, and who those who did not believe in him
were.’ (cf Joh 6:65) That he knew things which were hidden is clear
from what he said when making public the hidden counsels of the Jews:
‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’ (Matt 9:4)

85 He himself made it clear that the Holy Spirit, in a similar fashion,
has foreknowledge of all things, when he said to the apostles: ‘When
the Spirit of truth comes he will teach you all things and make known
to you things which are to come.’ (Joh 16:13) There can be no doubt
that one who is said to make known things which are to come has
foreknowledge of all things, because he himself probes the depths of
God and knows all that is in God, just as Paul relates when he says:
‘the Spirit probes all things, even the depths of God.’ (I Cor 2:10)
Again, in the same place: ‘Just as no man knows what belongs to man,
except the spirit which is in him, so no-one knows what belongs to
God, except the Spirit of God.’ (I Cor 2:11)

86 But in order that the mightiness of the Holy Spirit may be
understood, we shall mention a few things which are among the awe¬
inspiring. A deceitful disciple had sold his property, as is written in the
Acts of the Apostles, but kept back part of the money and laid down
what was left at the feet of the apostles, as if it were the whole. He
offended the Holy Spirit, from whom he thought he could hide. But
what did the blessed Peter say to him straightaway? ‘Annanias, why has
Satan filled your heart, so that you have lied to the Holy Spirit?’ (Acts
5:3) And further on: ‘You have lied not to men, but to God.’ (Acts 5:4)
So it was that he was struck down by the power of the one to whom he
had been willing to lie and breathed his last. And how does blessed
Peter wish the Holy Spirit to be understood in this place? It is very

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clear, when he says "You have bed not to men, but to God." It is
therefore obvious that, since one who lies to the Holy Spirit lies to
God, one who believes in the Holy Spirit believes in God.

87 Of the same kind, but more powerful, is what the Lord discloses in
the Gospel when he says: ‘Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
men, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit shall not be
forgiven in this age or the age to come.’ (Matt 12:3 If) Behold the
terrifying decree: he says that one who blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit commits a sin which cannot be forgiven. Compare with this
decree what is written in the book of Kings: ‘If a man sins by sinning
against a man they shall pray for him, but if he sins against God, who
shall pray for him?’ (cf I Sam 2:25) Therefore, since blaspheming
against the Holy Spirit and sinning against God are similar, in that the
offence cannot be atoned for, everyone can now understand how great
the Holy Spirit is.

88 That God is present everywhere and fills all things we learn from
the mouth of Isaiah: ‘I, says God, am near, and not far off. Therefore,
if a man conceals himself in hiding places, shall I not see him? Do I
not fill heaven and earth?’ (cf Jer 23:23f) And what does the Saviour
say in the Gospel concerning his presence everywhere? ‘Wherever two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of
them.’ (Matt 18:20) Speaking in the person of God, the prophet
indicates that the Holy Spirit, equally, is eveiywhere: ‘I am in you and
my Spirit stands in your midst.’ (cf Ez 36:27) And Solomon says: ‘The
Spirit of the Lord fills the wide earth and that which holds all things
together knows his voice.’ (Wisd 1:7) Again, David says: ‘Where shall
I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? If I go up
to heaven, you are there; if I go down to hell, you are present; if I take
my wings in a straight line and live by the furthest part of the sea, you
shall lead me there, and your right hand shall sustain me.’ (Ps 138:7-9)

89 God dwells in his saints, according to the promise in which he said:
‘I shall dwell in them.’ (II Cor 6:16) And what the Lord Jesus says in
the Gospel, ‘Remain in me and I in you,’ (Joh 15:4) is assented to by
Paul when he says ‘Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?’ (II
Cor 13;5) All this is fulfilled in the dwelling of the Spirit, just as John

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

mentions: ‘From this,’ he says, ‘we know that he is in us, because he
has given to us of his Spirit.’ (cf I Joh 4:13) In the same vein is Paul
as well: ‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the
Spirit of God dwells in you?’ (I Cor 3:16) And again, he says: ‘Glorify
God and carry him about in your body.’ (1 Cor 6:20 Vulg) Which God?
To be sure, the Holy Spirit, whose temple, as we have seen, we are.

90 That the Son and the Holy Spirit rebuke that which the Father
rebukes can be proved in this way. In psalm 49 we read: ‘God says to
the sinner’ and, further on, ‘I rebuke you and issue a decree before
your face.’ (Ps 49:16,21) In the same way David, at prayer, speaks to
Christ: ‘Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath,’ (Ps 6:2) because he
was to come to rebuke all flesh. But what does the Saviour say in the
Gospel concerning the Holy Spirit? ‘When the Paraclete comes,’ he
says, ‘he will rebuke the world concerning sin, righteousness and
judgment.’ (Joh 16:8) Foreseeing this, David cried out to the Lord
‘Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your
face?’ (Ps 138:7)

91 That the Father is good, the Son is good and the Holy Spirit is
good can be proved as follows. The prophet says: ‘You are good, Lord;
of your goodness, teach me your precepts.’ (Ps 118:68) But the only-
begotten says of himself: ‘I am the good shepherd.’ (Joh 10:11)
Equally, David speaks to God concerning the Holy Spirit in a psalm:
‘Your good Spirit shall lead me in the right way.’ (Ps 142:10)

92 But who could remain silent as to the dignity of the Holy Spirit?
For of old the prophets cried out: ‘Thus says the Lord.’ (Ex 5:1 etc)
When Christ came, he applied this expression to his own person when
he said: ‘But I say to you.’ (Matt 5:22) And what did the new prophets
ciy out? Just as the prophet Agabus did in the Acts of the Apostles:
‘Thus says the Holy Spirit.’ (Acts 21:11) And Paul says to Timothy:
‘The Spirit clearly says.’ (I Tim 4:1) This expression makes the absence
of distinction within the Trinity completely clear. And indeed, Paul says
that he was called and sent by God the Father and by Christ: ‘Paul,’ he
says, ‘an apostle not from men or through man but through Jesus
Christ and God the Father.’ (Gal 1:1) In the Acts of the Apostles one
reads that he was set apart and sent by the Holy Spirit. For it is

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written: ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit: "Set Barnabas and Saul apart for
me for the work to which I have called them."’ (Acts 13:2) And a little
later it says: ‘Sent by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia.’
(Acts 13:4) Again, in the same book: ‘Pay attention to yourselves and
to the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you bishops.’
(Acts 20:28)

93 Let no-one consider that the Holy Spirit is in some way
contemptible because he is called ‘Paraclete’, for a paraclete is an
‘advocate’, or rather ‘comforter,’ in the Latin language, and this is a
title he shares with the Son of God, just as John teaches: ‘These
things,’ he says, ‘I write to you so that you do not sin, but if anyone sins
we have a paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ.’ 4 * For the Lord
himself says to the apostles: ‘the Father will send you another
Paraclete’ (Joh 14:16), and there can be no doubt that when he says
‘another Paraclete’ he indicates that he is a paraclete as well. And
neither is the title ‘paraclete’ inappropriate to the Father, for it is a
title applied to beneficence, not to nature.

94 Finally, Paul writes to the Corinthians in these terms: ‘Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort, who comforts us.’ (II Cor l:3f) And
although the Father is called comforter, the Son is called comforter,
and the Holy Spirit is called comforter as well, nevertheless there is
one comfort provided to us by the Trinity, just as there is one remission
of sins, as the apostle affirms: ‘You have been washed,’ he says, ‘and
justified, and you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ and in the Spirit of our God.’ (I Cor 6:11) We could have
brought forth more testimonies from the divine scriptures which, in
accordance with the sacrament of baptism, 49 disclose a Trinity of one
gloiy, operation and power, but because the full understanding of these
things is for the wise, we have passed over many things for the sake of
brevity.

cf 1 Joh 2:1, bul whereas the Vulgate has 'advocatum', the text here reads 'paraclitum'.
Presumably a reference to the formula for baptism given at Matt 28:19.

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95 And so let us summarize what we have said. If the Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Father, if he sets free, if he is the lord and
sanctifies, if he creates together with the Father and the Son, if he
gives life, if he has foreknowledge together with the Father and the
Son, if he is everywhere and fills all things, if he lives in the elect, if he
rebukes the world, if he judges, if he is good and upright, if it is
proclaimed of him ‘thus says the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 21:11), if he
appoints prophets, if he sends apostles, if he places bishops in
authority, if he is the comforter, if he dispenses all things as he wills,
if he washes and justifies, if he kills those who put him to the test, if
one who blasphemes him will have remission neither in this age nor the
one to come, something which is thoroughly appropriate to God: all
this being the case, why do people doubt that he is God, since he
reveals what he is by the greatness of his works? One who is not
different to the Father and the Son in the strength of his works is
certainly not different to them in majesty.

96 In vain do they deny the title ‘divine’ to one whose power they
cannot refuse to acknowledge, in vain do they prohibit me from
venerating with the Father and the Son him whom I am driven to
acknowledge together with the Father and the Son. If he, together with
the Father and the Son, bestows on me the remission of sins, and
bestows sanctification and eternal life, it would be thoroughly
ungrateful and wicked of me were I not to ascribe him glory with the
Father and the Son. Or: if he should not be worshipped with the
Father and the Son, he should therefore not be acknowledged in
baptism. But if the words of the Lord and the tradition of the apostles
make it quite clear that he is to be acknowledged, lest the faith be only
half complete, who will prohibit me from worshipping him? For I shall
also make due supplications to one in whom I am ordered to believe.
Therefore, I shall adore the Father, I shall adore the Son, and I shall
adore the Holy Spirit, with one and the same veneration.

97 Now if someone considers this hard, let him hear how David
exhorts the faithful to the worship of God: ‘Adore,’ he says, ‘his
footstool.’ (Ps 98:5 Vulg) If the adoration of his footstool is a
characteristic of religion, how much more should his Spirit be adored?
He is certainly that Spirit whom blessed Peter proclaimed with such

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sublimity when he spoke of ‘the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven,
whom the angels long to catch sight of.’ (cf I Pet 1:12) If the angels
long to catch sight of him, how much more ought we mortals not look
down on him, in case what was said to the Jews happens to be said to
us as well: ‘You have always resisted the Holy Spirit, just like your
fathers.’ (Acts 7:51)

98 But if these considerations, so great and of such kinds, do not
incline the heart to venerate the Holy Spirit, pay attention to
something still more powerful. For Paul instructed the prophets of the
church, in whom and through whom the Holy Spirit spoke in particular,
in this way: ‘If,’ he said, ‘all prophesy, and some unbeliever or
unlearned person comes in, he is convicted by all, put to the trial by all,
the hidden things of his heart are revealed; and then, falling on his
face, he will adore God and declare that God is truly in you.’ (I Cor
14:24f) And the Holy Spirit who prophesies is obviously in these
people. Therefore, if unbelievers fall on their faces and, terrified, adore
the Holy Spirit and confess him against their will, how much more is
it proper for the faithful to adore the Holy Spirit of their free will and
out of love? But the Holy Spirit is not adored by himself, in the
manner of the gentiles, 50 just as the Son is not adored by himself,
because he is at the right hand of the Father, but when we adore the
Father we believe that we adore the Son and the Holy Spirit, and when
we invoke the Son we believe that we invoke the Father, and when we
pray to the Father we believe that we are heard by the Son, just as the
Lord himself said: ‘Whatever you ask the Father in my name, I shall
do, so that the Father might be honoured in the Son.’ (Joh 14:13) And
if the Holy Spirit is adored, the one whose spirit he is, is assuredly
adored as well.

99 But there can be no-one ignorant of the fact that nothing can be
added to or taken away from the divine majesty by human
supplications, but each person, following the intention of his will, gains
either glory by worshipping faithfully, or everlasting shame by resisting

50 That is, the Spirit is not treated as a separate deity in a polytheistic manner. A similar
point is made at 2.100.

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stubbornly. For it is certain that strife and pride condemn, but that the
fruit of devotion will be the bestowing of honour. Why should the
faithful not give honour to the Trinity, to which they trust they belong,
in its fullness? They take pride in having been bom again in its name
and in describing themselves as its servants. For just as men of God are
called this with reference to the name of God the Father, so that Elijah
was termed ‘man of God’ and Moses was called ‘man of God,’ so we
Christians take our name from Christ, and so too we are called
‘spiritual’ after the Spirit. If, therefore, someone is called ‘man of God’
and is not a Christian, he is nothing; if someone is called ‘Christian’
and is not spiritual, he should not be too confident of his salvation.

100 Let us therefore have a full faith in the Trinity, in accordance with
the profession of that baptism which brings salvation, and one devotion
and piety, and let us not think, as do the gentiles, of different powers,
or receive in the Trinity a created being when it is a question of the
divine nature. But neither let us be troubled by something which causes
offence to the Jews who deny the Son of God and do not adore the
Holy Spirit; rather, adoring and magnifying the full Trinity, let us, just
as we say with our mouth when celebrating the mysteries, also hold
inwardly ‘Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts.’ (Is 6:3) Saying ‘holy’
three times we acknowledge one omnipotence, because there is one
religion and one rendering of gloiy to the Trinity, as we can hear from
the apostle just as the Corinthians heard it: ‘The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.’ (II Cor 13:13)

101 This is our faith, confirmed by evangelical and apostolic traditions
and authority, and founded on the association of all the catholic
churches which are in this world; in which faith we trust and hope we
shall remain, by the grace of almighty God, until the end of this life.
Amen.

This is the end of the book sent on 20 April by Januarius of
Zattara (Kef Benzioune) and Villaticus of Casae Medianae, bishops of
Numidia, and Boniface of Foratiana and Boniface of Gratiana, bishops
of Byzacena.

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BOOK 3

1 When our little book had been presented to them and read out,
their blind eyes found it impossible to endure the light of the truth.
They raved with intolerable shouts, taking it amiss that in the title of
the book we had called ourselves ‘Catholics’. 1 Straightaway those liars
declared to the king that we had created an uproar while rushing away
from the hearing. He was immediately inflamed and, believing the
falsehood, lost no time in doing what he wanted to do.

2 He had already drawn up a decree and secretly sent his men with it
throughout the different provinces. So, while the bishops were in
Carthage, in one day he closed the churches throughout Africa and he
presented all the property of the bishops and churches to his own
bishops as a gift. Also, ‘without understanding what it said and the
things it asserted’, (cf I Tim 1:7), they did not blush for shame in
deploying against us a law which our Christian emperors, seeking to do
honour to the catholic church, had previously issued against them and
other heretics, 2 to which they added many things of their own, just as
seemed good to their tyrannical power. This is the text of the law which
was issued and published.

3 "Hunirix, king of the Vandals and Alans, to all the peoples subject
to our sovereignty. It is well known that the casting back of evil
counsels against those who give them is a feature of triumphant majesty
and royal strength. For whoever devises something depraved must
blame himself for what happens to him. In this matter our clemency
has been guided by the will of the divine judgment, which deals with all
people in accordance with what their deeds, whether they have been
good or, as it may be, the reverse, have deserved: it makes some pay

1 The reading of a document of this length would have been conducive to feelings of
restlessness. Augustine observed that all heretics wished to be called Catholics: con ep fund 4.5
(PL 42:175).

Imperial legislation against heretics is gathered in cod thcod 16.5, where 16.5.6,8,11-13,
16, 59f and 65f mention Arians. Other sources which mention the following events are not
detailed: Laterculus reg Wand etAl (MGHAA 13:458); Victor of Tunnunna chron s.a. 466, 479;
Procopius BV l.8.3f. As with the official documents reproduced by Victor in book 2, the Latin
of this document is tortuous.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

a penalty, while it turns out that others are rewarded. And so we have
adopted a severe judgment against these provocative people who
believe that what our father of glorious memory and our own mildness
have commanded should be despised.

4 "For we had all the peoples notified of our orders that the
homousian priests were to presume to hold no liturgies in the lands of
the Vandals, 3 nor were they to take it upon themselves to celebrate
the mysteries, things which in fact pollute. When we saw that this was
disregarded, and many came to our attention who said that they kept
the rule of faith in its entirety, it is well known that all were advised
that a debate, to take place nine months later, had been allowed, in
case some part of their opinion could be accommodated, and that they
were to assemble without any fear on 25 February of the eighth year
of our reign.

5 "When they came together here at the town of Carthage, after the
prescribed time had passed, we granted, as is recognized, a further
deferment of some days. And when they affirmed that they were
prepared for the debate, it is well known that on the first day our
venerable bishops proposed to them that they prove the homousion in
a proper fashion from the divine Scriptures, just as they had been
asked to, failing which they would certainly condemn something which
was done away with by a thousand and more bishops from the whole
world at the council of Ariminum and at Seleucia. 4

6 "But they, using the people whom they had stirred up, brought
everything into confusion, and showed not the slightest desire to do
this. On the contrary, on the second day, when we asked them to give
an answer concerning that same faith, just as had been proposed, they
took it upon themselves, with consummate foolhardiness, to throw

Sortes Vandalorum. for which see above 1.13 with note. Wolfram suggests (1979:4) that
the sortes Vandalorum of the early period of Vandal settlement were referred to as the Regnum
Vandalorum et Alanorum in the next generation, which is possible.

The Arianizing councils of Ariminum (Rimini) and Seleucia had been summoned by the
emperor Constantius in 359.

VICTOR OF VITA

everything into confusion with seditious shouting, with the intention of
bringing it about that the debate did not take place.

7 "Provoked by these people, we ordered that their churches were to
be closed. As expressed in a written communication to them, the terms
were that they were to be closed until such time as they chose to come
to the debate which had been proposed. But, impelled by an obstinacy
which their wicked purposes seem to have led them to embrace, they
did not wish to do this. And so it is necessary and very just to twist
around against them what is shown to be contained in those very laws
which happen to have been promulgated by the emperors of various
times who, with them, had been led into error. 3

8 "The purport of these laws was that no church was to have been kept
open, except by the priests of their superstition: other priests were not
allowed either to conduct assemblies or hold meetings, nor to possess
or construct churches in cities or even in the tiniest places; these were
to be taken over and added to the possessions of the fisc. In addition,
their patrimonies, which had pertained to the churches of their faith,
were to have passed to their priests. Such people were not to have
been given the liberty to stay in any places at all, but they were to be
banished from all cities and places. Nor were they to have any means
for baptizing at their disposal, in case they should happen to dispute
concerning religion; and they were to have no freedom to ordain
bishops or priests or other ranks of clergy. A severe punishment was set
forth: both those who permitted themselves to receive such honours
and those who ordained them were to be fined ten pounds of gold
each. Furthermore, there was to be no opportunity or possibility for
them to make any petition, and even if they deserved special treatment
they were not to prevail. And if they persisted in this wicked behaviour,
they were also to be driven from their own land and sent into exile
under a suitable guard.

9 "The aforementioned emperors also raged against the laity in a
similar fashion, because they were to lose completely their right to

For what follows, there is a helpful commentaiy by Ovetbeck 1973:77-79.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

bestow and bequeath, or to receive what was left to them by others,
whether in the form of a bequest held for someone else, or of a legacy,
or of donations, or by that means termed ‘by cause of death’, or by
means of any codicil or any pieces of writing whatsoever. They would
also make those who held office in their palaces subject to a very harsh
punishment in accordance with their rank, so that, stripped of every
privilege pertaining to their position, they would incur disgrace, and
persons of this kind would realize that they were subject to the same
law as everyone else. Also, a penalty of thirty pounds of silver was
enacted for the officials of the various judges, and if it came to pass
that they persisted in their error and paid the penalty on five occasions,
then were such people, having been convicted and beaten into
submission by rods, to be eventually sent into exile.

10 "They went on to order that all the books of the priests whom they
persecuted were to be cast into the fires, and we order that this is to
be done in the case of books of this kind, from which their bad people
argue for their erroneous belief. It is said that they ordered that these
things were to be observed with respect to each individual person: the
illustres were each to pay fifty pounds of gold, speclabiles forty pounds
of gold, senators thirty pounds of gold, leading men twenty pounds of
gold, priests thirty pounds of gold, decurions five pounds of gold,
merchants five pounds of gold, common people five pounds of gold,
and circumcelliones * * * * 6 ten pounds of silver, and if any persons happened
to persist in this wickedness, all their goods were to be confiscated and
they were to be punished with exile.

11 "We see that they afflicted the governing classes of the cities, as
well as the overseers and the leaseholders 7 of the estates, with a
penalty of this kind: if it happened that they were pleased to hide such
people and had not made them public, and did not have them held fast

ll is not clear whether these people are to be seen as an essentially religious

phenomenon (so Calderone 1967) or as agricultural labourers (so Courtois 1955:147); see

recently Frend 1982:618-20. The list of payments is broadly similar to one imposed on the

Donatists in cod thcod 16.5.52.The survival of the categories of people listed here is discussed

by Clover (1982. esp. 667).

7 For the conductors, Decret/Fantar 1981:228f.

VICTOR OF VITA

and presented for judgment, they themselves were to discharge the
penalty. This was the punishment enacted for the leaseholders on the
royal estates: by way of punishment they would be forced to render to
the fisc as much as they paid to the royal household. This, we
determine, is to be observed in general in the cases of all leaseholders
and proprietors of land who believe they should persist in the same
superstition. With respect to judges who failed to devote themselves to
this matter with due urgency, proscription and capital punishment
would be imposed as their penalty; the three chief officials of their
departments were also to be punished, and the others condemned to
a fine of twenty pounds of gold.

12 "Wherefore it is necessary for all homousians, who are known to
have held and continue to hold to the substance of an evil persuasion
of this kind, to be bound by these regulations: we decree that they are
to abstain from all the things mentioned above, which, among the
governing classes of all our towns, will entail prosecution; this is also
to apply to judges who are found to be negligent in inflicting dire
penalties on individual people. Therefore we order all those involved
in the errors of the abovementioned homousian faith, which has been
condemned by all of the many bishops in a council, to desist from every
one of the aforementioned practices and legal agreements. They should
know that nothing is allowed them; but a similar punishment is to
remain in force and bind them all, if they are not converted to that
true religion which we venerate and practise by 1 June in the eighth
year of our reign. Our goodness has appointed this specific day so that
indulgence may not be denied those who renounce their error, and
fitting penalties may correct obstinate minds.

13 "But those who remain in the same error who either perform duties
in our household or happen to be in charge of various administrative
tasks are to be forced to submit to the monetaxy penalties described
above in accordance with their grades, and things which they may have
obtained through any kind of trickery will be of no use at all. With
regard to private persons of whatever standing and position, this our
decree orders that what is clearly stated in the abovementioned laws
concerning such people is to be observed, so that they may be
subjected to a fitting punishment. And we enjoin that judges of the

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

provinces who are negligent in carrying out what has been decreed are
to be liable to the punishment prescribed above for such people.

14 "And by this decree we ordain that all the churches of the entire
clergy of the abovementioned persuasion situated throughout the lands
and regions which are possessed by the governance of our sovereignty,
in accordance with the divine will, together with the property which
pertains to the same, ought to be of service to the true worshippers of
the divine majesty, that is our priests, not doubting that what is justly
bestowed on our sacred pontiffs will be of more use for the support of
the poor. We therefore order that this law, flowing from the fount of
justice, is to be made known to all, so that no-one can allege that he
is ignorant of what has been prescribed. May all go well with you!
Given at Carthage on 25 February."

15 After these deadly edicts, full of toxic poison, he ordered that all
the bishops who had come together at Carthage and whose churches,
homes and property they had already taken, were to be despoiled in
the lodgings where they were. After they had been despoiled, they were
to be driven outside the walls. Not an animal, not a slave, not so much
as the clothes on their backs was left them; furthermore, no-one was
to take any of them into his house or provide them with food. Anyone
who tried to do this out of pity was to be consumed by lire, together
with his entire household.

16 The bishops who had been cast forth then behaved wisely, for even
though they were now beggars they did not go away from where they
were. This was partly because, if they did go away, they could have
been forcibly called back and a false claim would be made, just as it
was made, that they had fled from the debate. But the chief reason was
that there was now nothing at all left where they would have returned,
their churches, property and homes having been taken over. Now, when
they were lying around the walls in the open air and groaning, it
happened that the wicked king went out on his way to the pool where
he used to swim. They all chose to run up to him, saying: "Why are we
oppressed in this way? What evil deeds have we done for us to be
enduring these things? If we were brought together in order to dispute,
why have we been despoiled, why have we been moved away, why have

VICTOR OF VITA

we been dispersed, and why, separated from our churches and homes,
are we suffering outside the city in hunger and nakedness,' wallowing
in the midst of dung?" He looked on them with wild eyes, and before
he had given a hearing to what they had to say he ordered that the
horses, with their riders, were to be set upon them, with such violence
that they could not only have been trampled upon, but also killed.
Many of them, especially the old and infirm, were trampled upon at
that time.

17 Then those men of God were ordered to proceed to a place called
the temple of Memoria. They did not know of the trap which had been
prepared for them. When they had come there they were shown a
rolled-up document, and they were told, with subtlety worthy of the
serpent: "Our lord king Hunirix, although he is distressed that in your
contempt you are still holding back from obeying his will by becoming
adherents of the religion which is his, has nevertheless had a good
thought concerning you. If you will swear to carry out what is
contained in this document, he bids you return to your churches and
homes.” To this, the bishops replied all together: "At all times we say,
have said and shall say: We are Christians, we are bishops, we hold the
one, true apostolic faith!"

18 After they had made this confession of faith there was a short
silence, and then the men who had been chosen by the king made haste
to obtain the oath from the bishops by force. Then those true men, the
blessed bishops Hortulanus and Florentianus, spoke on behalf of them
all and for them all: "Surely we are not unreasoning animals that will
easily and thoughtlessly swear without knowing what the document
contains?" The men chosen by the king immediately made known to
them the contents of the piece of writing, decked out in words of this
kind.

A quote from Zeno (CCSL 22:149.144f). I owe this reference to L5fstedt 1982:72.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

19 That piece of chicanery read as follows: "Swear that, after the death
of our lord the king, you wish his son Hildirit’ to be king, and that
none of you will send letters to lands across the sea, for if you give
your oath concerning this, he will restore you to your churches." In
their good-hearted simplicity, many decided to give the oath, contrary
to the divine prohibition, in case the people of God were later to say
that the bishops who had not wished to swear were to blame for the
churches not being restored. But other, more astute bishops felt that
it was a deceptive trap, and were totally unwilling to swear. They said
that it had been prohibited by the authority of the gospel, when the
Lord himself says: ‘Do not swear at all.’ (Matt 5:13) The king’s servants
said to them: "Let those who are prepared to swear step aside." When
they had done this shorthand writers took down what each one said
and from which town he came; the same thing happened with those
who did not swear. Each group was immediately delivered into custody.

20 But afterwards the trick which had been concealed became clear.
To those who had sworn they said: "Because you were willing to swear,
contrary to the precept of the gospel, the king has ordered that you are
never to see your towns and churches, but are to be banished with the
status of coloni and given fields to cultivate. As well, you are not to
sing the psalms or pray or hold in your hands a book to read from; you
are not to baptize or ordain, nor are you to dare to reconcile anyone."
Similarly, it was said to those who had not sworn: "You did not want
to swear because you do not wish the son of our lord to reign. For this
reason an order has been given for you to be banished to the island of
Corsica, so you can cut timber for the king’s ships."

21 That beast, a thirst for the blood of the innocent, 10 went further.
At a time when those bishops had not yet been sent into exile, he sent
simultaneously through all the provinces of the land of Africa most
cruel torturers, so that there did not remain a single home or place free
of wailing and lamentations. They did not spare people of any age or

So spelt by Victor; the form Hilderic is more usual. The possibility that the bishops had
been involved in plots is discussed by Courtois 1955:2941.

10 Courcelle 1964: 188 n.5 sees here a reference to tbe Beast of Revelation.

VICTOR OF VITA

either sex, except those who submitted to their will. Some were
tortured by being beaten, others by being hung, and others by the fire;
contrary to the laws of nature, women, especially the noble, were
tortured entirely naked and in full view of the public.

22 Of these I shall mention one, our Dionysia, in a quick and concise
manner. When they saw that she was not only more courageous but
also more beautiful than the other married women, they set to work
first on her, to strip her and get her ready for the clubs. Trusting in her
Lord she put up with these things and said: "Torture me however you
like, but do not uncover those parts which would cause me shame."
They, behaving still more wildly, stripped off all her clothes and made
her stand up in a more prominent place, making a spectacle of her in
front of everyone. Amid the blows of the rods, and while streams of
blood were already flowing over her whole body, she spoke in a bold
voice: "You servants of the Devil, what you think you are doing to my
shame is in fact to my praise." And because she had a full knowledge
of the divine scriptures, she strengthened others for their martyrdom,
despite having been afflicted with punishments and being already a
martyr herself. By her holy example she set nearly the whole of her
country free.

23 When she saw that her only son, who was still of tender years and
rather delicate, was afraid and in dread of the punishments, she
strengthened him by casting wounding glances and threatening him
with her motherly authority" to such an extent that he was turned
into someone far stronger than his mother. When he was in the midst
of the cruel scourges she spoke to him in this way: "Remember, my
son, that we have been baptized in the catholic mother in the name of
the Trinity. Let us not lose that garment of our salvation, in case the
host, when he comes, does not find the wedding garment and says to
his servants: 'Cast him into the outer darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt 22:13) The punishment to be
feared is the one which will never end, and the life to be desired is the

11 I read ‘auctoritate malcma’, with Petschenig, against ‘aeterna'. Such expressions are
formulaic with Victor cf. ‘materno...affectu’(2.29) and 'auctoritate uxoria' (3.50).

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

one which will be enjoyed for ever." So it was that, strengthening her
son by words such as these, she quickly made a martyr of him.

24 That young man, so worthy of veneration, whose name was
Majoricus, breathed his last in the struggle he waged for his confession
and completed his palm-strewn course. The woman, embracing the
victim, truly hers, rendered thanks to the Lord with as many words as
she was capable of, and she chose to bury him, in the joy of future
hope, in her home, so that as often as she poured forth her prayers to
the Trinity above his tomb, she would be confident that she was never
far from her son. It would take long to tell how many were the people
who, as we have said, were gained for God through her in that town.
For there were also her sister, named Dativa, and Leontia, the
daughter of the holy bishop Germanus, and Emilius, one of Dativa’s
relations, a doctor worthy of reverence, as well as the religious man
Tertius, who was outstanding for his confession of the Trinity, and
Boniface of Sibida. So many were the things they suffered, and such
were the torments with which they were tortured, that one who is
capable should speak of them one at a time.

25 And who could tell the story of the punishments which Servus,
from the large town of Tuburbo (Henchir Kasbat), a true man, eminent
and noble, endured for Christ? After receiving countless blows from
rods he was frequently lifted up by machines with pulleys and, as he
hung, taken throughout the city for the whole day. Now he was lifted
on high, but when the ropes were released again he fell quickly and
tumbled down with the full weight of his body on the pebbles of the
streets, coming down upon the stones like a stone. But more often he
was dragged along and made to rub against stones which were very
sharp, so that his skin came off and you would see it hanging from his
body along his sides, back and belly. He had already suffered things
quite like these in the time of Geiseric, for not making public the
secrets of a particular friend: how much more would he suffer now,
when he was safeguarding the mysteries of his faith? And if he
faithfully displayed his faith for the sake of a man, and for no gain,
how much more must he have done so for the sake of the one who will
render to him a reward for that faith?

VICTOR OF VITA

26 But I lack the ability to narrate the deeds which were accomplished
in the town of Culusi, because it is beyond human power even to count
the number of martyrs and confessors there. In that place there was a
married woman, Victoria, who conformed to her name. While she was
being tortured by being left hanging for a good while in the sight of the
common people, she was addressed in the following terms by her
husband, already a lost man, in the presence of their children: "Why
are you suffering, wife? If you hold me in disdain, at least have mercy
on these little ones to whom you gave birth, you evil woman! Why do
you forget your womb and count as nothing those you bore amidst
groans? Where are the covenants of married love? Where are the
bonds of that relationship which written documents once brought about
between us, in accordance with the law which pertains to respectable
folk? Look, I beseech you, on your children and husband, and hasten
to comply with what is commanded in the king’s order, so that you may
escape the torments still to come and, as well, be given back to me and
our children." But she, listening to neither the wailing of her children
nor the blandishments of the serpent, lifted her affections far above the
earth and despised the world with its desires. When those who had
been torturing her saw that she had died, her shoulders having been
wrenched away owing to the period for which she had hung,
straightaway they took her down, completely lifeless. Afterwards she
said that a virgin had stood by her and touched her limbs, one by one,
and she had been healed then and there.

27 I do not know how to commend Victorianus, a citizen of the town
of Hadrumentum (Sousse) who was then proconsul of Carthage; words
fail me. There was no-one more wealthy than he in the regions of
Africa, and even the wicked king considered him a most faithful man
in the things which were always being entrusted to him. In a friendly
way the king sent word to him and he was told that he would be
considered the first among all if he would readily give assent to what
he enjoined. But with great confidence that man of God replied to the
people sent to him thus: "Trusting as I do in Christ, my God and my

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

Lord, 12 1 tell you what you are to tell the king: let him make me stand
in the fires, let him drive me to the beasts, let him afflict me with
torments of every kind; if I consent, I have been baptized in the
catholic church in vain. For even if this present life were the only one
and we did not hope for the other life, eternal and true, I would not
act in such a way as to enjoy gloiy for a short and passing period while
being ungrateful to my creditor who had faith in me." The tyrant was
aroused at his answer and afflicted him with punishments which lasted
so long and were so great that human speech could not set them forth.
Rejoicing in the Lord he came to a good end, and so received a
martyr’s crown.

28 But who would have the ability to set forth the contests which the
martyrs also waged in the town of Thambaia? There it was that two
brothers who came from the town of Aqua Regia, trusting in the Lord,
took an oath together that they would ask the torturers to inflict upon
them the one punishment and an equal suffering. And when, having
been hung up for the first time, they had been suspended all day with
heavy stones tied to their feet, one of them asked to be let down and
given some respite. The other brother feared that he would renounce
the faith, and called out to him from where he hung: "Don’t, don’t,
brother! This is not what we have sworn to Christ. I shall accuse you
when we come before his dreadful throne, because we swore upon his
Body and Blood that we would suffer for him together." Saying these
and many other things he strengthened his brother for the combat of
his passion, and the latter, crying out in a loud voice, proclaimed:
"Unleash whatever sufferings you like, and torment the Christians with
cruel punishments: what my brother will do, I shall do as well.” With
how many red-hot plates they burned them, with what kinds of claws 13
they dug into them, and with what torments they tortured them is made

12 •
Reading 'de Christo deo et domino meo' with Halm, against 'de deo et Christo domino

meo' (Petschenig). The Utter reading may represent an attempt to make better theological

sense, but the high Christology implied by the former is suggested elsewhere by Victor (3.63),

with which compare Joh 20:28 and II Thess 1:12, and, in Hydatius, the expression 'servus Iesu

Christi dei et domini nostri' (MGHAA 11:13.5). It is clearly anti-Arian in tendency.

13 The ungula was a form of torture traditionally used against Christians: TertullUn apol

12.4, 30.7: Cyprian ep 21.4; Prudentius peristef 1.44.

VICTOR OF VITA

clear by this fact: the torturers themselves ‘cast them out of their sight’
(cf Ps 50:13 Vulg), saying: "The entire people imitates them, so that no-
one at all is converted to our religion." This was especially so, because
no bruises and no traces whatever of their punishments were to be seen
on them.

29 But let us go on quickly to tell what was done to the glory of God
in the town of Tipasa (Tifech) in greater Mauritania. When they saw
that a former notary of Cyrila had been ordained as the Arian bishop
for their town, to the perdition of souls, the entire town fled together
all at once on the next sailing to Spain, leaving behind only a few who
had not been able to sail. 14 The bishop of the Arians began to put
pressure on these people, first by blandishments and later by threats,
in an attempt to make Arians of them. But they were strong in the
Lord: not only did they laugh at the madness of the man who was
exhorting them, but they also began to celebrate the divine mysteries
in public, gathering together in a house. When the bishop found out
about this, in secret he sent to Carthage a report about it which was
hostile to them.

30 When this came to the attention of the king, in his wrath he sent
a count with orders that the entire province was to be gathered
together in the middle of the forum, and that he was to cut the tongues
and right hands of these people completely off. But when this was
done, thanks to the operation of the Holy Spirit they spoke, and
continue to speak, just as they had spoken before. And if anyone finds
this hard to believe, he should go to Constantinople now, and there he
will find one of them, the subdeacon Reparatus, speaking correctly and
in a faultless manner. For this reason he is held to be worthy of
reverence in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and the queen in
particular venerates him with an extraordinary devotion. 15

On the links between Tipasa and Spain, Courtois 1954:30. The town was a long way
from the chief area of Vandal settlement.

15 In various forms this stoiy circulated widely; see Procopius BV 1.8.4, followed by
Evagriu shist eccl 4.14; Victor of Tunnunna chron s.a. 479.1; Marcellinus comes chrort s.a. 484;
cod just 1.27.1.4; Aeneas of Gaza (PG 85:1001A); Gregory the Great dial 3.32, (where the
incident is curiously dated to the time of Justinian). Marrou, with reference to the evidence of

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

31 But who could describe in Fitting language or confine himself to
just a brief account of the different punishments which the Vandals, on
the order of the king, inflicted on their own people? If a writer tried
to recount the things which were done in Carthage itself one by one,
without any ornament of speech, he would not even be able to indicate
the names of the torments. The evidence can easily be viewed today.
You can look upon people without hands, others without eyes, others
who have no feet, others whose noses and ears have been cut off; and
you can see others, left hanging for too long a period, whose heads,
which used to be held normally, have been plunged between their
shoulders, and who have protruding shoulder blades. This occurred
because they tortured some by hanging them from high buildings and
swinging them to and fro through the empty air by jerking ropes with
their hands. In some cases the ropes broke, and those who had been
hung so high fell down with great force. Many of these people lost their
skulls, together with their eyes; others died immediately, their bones
broken; while others expired shortly afterwards.

32 But if anyone thinks this is just a story, he should ask Uranius, the
legate of Zeno, in whose presence these things were chiefly done. The
reason, it is clear, was as follows: when he came to Carthage, he
boasted that he had come to defend the catholic churches. And the
tyrant, to show him that he was afraid of no-one, stationed torturers,
greater in number and more cruel, in those streets and quarters which
legates generally pass through as they go up to the palace and come
down. 16 This conduct was clearly to the opprobrium of the empire and
of our age, now nearing its end. 17

33 So it was that the wife of one of the king’s butlers, Dagila by name,
who had already been a prominent confessor on many occasions during
the times of Geiseric, a noble and elegant woman, was thoroughly

the Russian Old Believers of the seventeenth century, comments that it is not unknown for
people to speak after their tongues have been pulled out (1967:207).

16 On the route legates would have taken. Clover 1982a:8, with Procopius BV 1.20.21 and
2.2.7.9 on people going up to the palace.

17 Victor uses ‘res publica’ for the empire. On the use of ‘faex’ in this passage. TLL
6:171.49f.

VICTOR OF VITA

disabled by whips and cudgels and then banished to an arid and
impenetrable place of exile, where no-one would be able to come and
bring her comfort. With joy she left her home, and her husband and
children as well. It is said that she was later given the opportunity of
being moved to a less harsh part of the desert where, if she wished, she
would enjoy the support of companions. But she, believing that great
joy was already hers there, where no human sympathy could bring her
comfort, asked that this not be done.

34 Then, when the shepherd Eugenius had already been exiled as
well, 18 the entire clergy of the church of Carthage, some 500 or more,
weakened by flogging and lack of food, were also driven, as they
rejoiced in the Lord, far away in a cruel exile. Among them were many
lectors, mere children. 19 But I must not remain silent concerning the
freedom displayed by the deacon Muritta, who acted more freely than
the others, while they were being flogged in the middle of the city.
There was also a man called Elpidoforus, very cruel and ferocious, who
had been given the job of tearing in pieces the limbs of the confessors
of Christ, as he tortured them with violence. Some time previously, and
while I was present, he had been baptized in the church of Faustus,
and the venerable deacon Muritta had taken him up, regenerate, from
the depths of the font. But afterwards, when he had forsaken his
religion, he showed such great savageness towards the church of God
that he was found to be worse than all the others in the way he carried
out the persecution.

35 Why go into details? First of all the priests were summoned, in
order, to be tormented by tortures, and, after the archdeacon Salutaris,
punishments were imposed on the Muritta we have mentioned, for he
was second in rank among the junior clergy. 20 As Elpidoforus sat by

That Eugenius was exiled to Tamallcni may be deduced from the Nolilia provinciarum
civilaturn Africae, procorts 1; sec further below 3.43f. An apparently authentic letter from him
to the people of Carthage is reproduced by Gregory of Tours hist franc 2.3.

For lectors as children, see hrevarium hipponense can 18 ( CCSL 259:38. with 298 no.
129). Epiphanius, later bishop of Pavia, became a lector when eight: Ennodius VEpi 8.

20 ‘Ministri’, a word already used at 1.37 and 1.51. From the context here it clearly means
those clergy holding a rank lower than that of priest.

HISTORY OF II IE VANDAL PERSECUTION

muttering, they began to stretch out the old man, worthy of honour.
His clothes had not yet been taken off, and in secret, with no-one
knowing, he was carrying the linen towels in which he had wrapped
Elpidoforus when he had taken him up from the font. He brandished
these and held them up in view of everyone, and when he spoke the
following words he is said to have moved the entire town to
lamentation and tears.

36 "These arc the linen cloths, Elpidoforus, you servant of falsehood,
which will accuse you when the Judge comes in his majesty. I shall be
careful to keep them as a testimony of your perdition, so that you will
be sunk in the abyss of the sulphurous pit. They clad you when you
rose spotless from the font, and they will follow after you the more
bitterly when you begin to possess a flaming gehenna, because you have
‘put on a curse just like a garment’ (Ps 108:18), breaking asunder and
letting go of the sacrament of true baptism and faith. What are you
going to do, you miserable man, when the servants of the head of the
family begin to bring together the people invited to the king’s supper?
Then the king, with frightening indignation, will see that you, a person
who was at one time invited, have taken off the wedding garment, and
he will say to you: ‘Friend, how have you come hither without a
wedding garment?’ (Matt 22:12) I do not see that which 1 conferred on
you; I do not recognize what I gave. You have lost the cloak worn by
my soldiery, which I wove on the loom of virgin limbs for ten months,
stretched out on the fuller’s stretcher of the cross, cleansed with water,
and beautified with the purple dye of my blood. I do not discern the
adornament of my sign; I do not see the branding mark 21 of the
Trinity. Such a man will not be able to take part in my banquet.

37 "‘Bind him hand and foot with his cords, because of his own free
will he has desired to separate him self from the Catholics who were
formerly his brothers. He ‘spread out ropes’ tied together ‘to be a

For ‘character’ as the branding mark imposed on Christians in baptism, see TLL
3:992.77ff; the usage is particularly common in Augustine. The ‘wedding garment’ is therefore
the sacrament of baptism, which Elpidoforus has presumably lost by being rebaptized: cf above
2.23. The issue of rebaptism is constant for much of book three. The ‘sign’ ('signaculum')
referred to immediately above is the sign of the cross.

VICTOR OF VITA

snare’ (cf Ps 139:6), but with them he has both bound himself and
prevented others from coming to that feast. ‘He placed a stumbling
block’ for many ‘alongside the path’ (cf Ps 139:6), and now I have cast
him forth from my feast, in perpetual disgrace and to his eternal
shame.’" While Muritta said these and other things, Elpidoforus was
speechless, roasted by the fire of his conscience before he experienced
the fire which is eternal.

38 So it was that all of them, making their backs ready for the rods,
quickly went forth into exile. While they were still making their long
journey, at the prompting of the bishops of the Arians, men were sent,
pitiless and violent, so that any food which the kindness of Christians
happened to bring them would be cruelly taken away. Then each one
of them quite boldly sang: "‘Naked I came forth from my mother’s
womb’ (Job 1:21), and it is fitting that I also go forth into exile naked,
because the Lord knows how to provide food for the hungry and to
clothe those in the wilderness." Furthermore two Vandals, oftentimes
confessors under Geiseric, despised all their wealth and proceeded into
exile with these clerics, in the company of their mother.

39 But at the prompting of that lost man Teucharius, who had
formerly been a lector, twelve little children were, in accordance with
what he said, separated from that multitude of confessors who were on
the move, that is, the clergy of the church of Carthage. He knew that
they were powerful singers and skilled at singing rhythmically, for they
had been his pupils when he had been a Catholic. As soon as he had
made the suggestion they were sent away on fast post horses, and the
dozen children were called back from their journey by the power of
barbarian raging. They were separated from the flock of the saints in
body but not in spirit; fearing that they would fall, they took hold of
the knees of their companions with sighs and tears, so that they would
not be tom away. Nevertheless, the violent heretics separated them by
threatening them with swords and summoned them back to Carthage.

40 But they were not treated with the kindly acts appropriate to those
of such an age, and they were found older than their years. ‘So that
they would not fall asleep in death’ (cf Ps 12:4) they lit the lamp of
evangelical light. The Arians, filled with indignation, blushed at having

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

been overcome by children. Aroused by this, they ordered that those
on whom they had inflicted various floggingsjust a few days previously
were again to be subjected to the rods. Wounds were imprinted on
wounds, and the torment, as it was renewed, grew worse. It turned out
that, with the Lord providing strength, despite their youth they did not
give way to the pain, but rather their morale, strengthened in the faith,
grew. Carthage now cherishes them with a wondrous love, and looks on
the band of children as the twelve apostles. They live as one, they eat
at the same time, they sing the psalms as a group, and they glorify the
Lord at the same time.

41 In those days two merchants from the same town, Frumentius and
another Frumentius, were crowned with an outstanding martyrdom. It
was then loo that seven men, brothers not by nature but by grace, who
dwelt together in a monastery, finished their struggle as confessors and
came to an unfading crown. They were abbot Liberatus, the deacon
Boniface, the subdeacons Servus and Rusticus, and the monks Rogatus,
Septimus and Maximus. 22

42 Now at that time the bishops, priests and clergy of the Arians were
raging with greater cruelty than the king and the Vandals. 23 For they
themselves, with their clergy, were running everywhere, girded with
swords, in order to persecute. Among them was a bishop, more cruel
than the others, named Antonius; so abominable and unbelievable are
the things which he did to us that they cannot be told. lie lived in a
town near the desert, not far from the province of Tripolitania, and,
like a beast which could not be satisfied and thirsted for the blood of
Catholics, he ran to and fro, roaring, in order to snatch them, (cf I Pet
5:18)

43 The wicked Huniric, knowing how fierce Antonius was, decided to
banish the holy Eugenius to those parts of the desert When Antonius
had taken him into custody he kept watch over him so closely that no-

22 These are the seven men whose passio is related in a work which may have been by
Victor. See further, on a commemorative inscription, Bairam-Ben and Ennabli 1982.

23 One of a number of indications in these chapters that not all Arians were Vandals.
Evidence for Roman converts to Arianism is discussed by Koenig 1981:335, 341-44.

VICTOR OF VITA

one was permitted to go in to him. lie also considered how he might
kill him by tormenting him with different plots and punishments. But
the holy Eugenius wept at the misfortunes of those of us who were
undergoing persecution, and wore down his old body with a rough
garment of hair. Lying on the bare ground, ‘he wet his couch with
showers of tears’ (Ps 6:7), and at length he experienced a dangerous
attack of paralysis.

44 On being told of this the Arian became joyful, and quickly he made
his way to the place, somewhat apart, where the man of God was in
exile. When he saw the true pontiff, burdened with his suffering,
produce a few stammering words, he decided then and there to deprive
of his life a man whom he did not wish to go on living. He ordered that
vinegar, bitter and exceedingly strong, was to be obtained, and when it
had been brought he poured it into the throat, reluctant and unwilling,
of the venerable old man. For if the Lord of all, who came for the very
purpose of drinking, did not wish to drink something which he had
tasted, how much more would that servant and faithful confessor have
been totally unwilling? 24 But heretical savageness poured it in. The
vinegar was particularly harmful to him in the condition he was in, and
his disease became worse. But in his goodness Christ mercifully came
to his aid and later restored his health.

45 Events made clear how much trouble he could cause another of our
bishops, the similarly banished Habetdeum of the town of Thamalluma,
where Antonius was. Having afflicted him with different kinds of
persecutions and been unable to make an Arian of him, and seeing the
soldier of Christ ever constant in his confession, he made a promise to
his people, saying "Unless I make him an adherent of our religion, I am
not Antonius.” When he was found wanting in his promise, he planned
something else which the Devil put into his mind.

46 He harassed the bishop, whose feet and hands he had bound in
huge chains, and having stopped up his mouth in case he cried out he
sprinkled water, which he thought was the water of rebaptism, on his

2 i

A reminiscence of the narratives of Christ's passion; see Matt 27:34,48.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

body. As if he could bind the conscience as he bound the body, or as
if the one \vho hears the groans of the shackled’ (Ps 101:21) and
scrutinizes the secrets of the heart was not close by, or as if deceptive
water could overcome the resolve of the firm intention which the man
of God had already sent to heaven as an ambassador, accompanied by
tears! Immediately he released the man from his chains and, rejoicing,
proceeded to speak in these terms: "Lo, brother Habetdeum, you have
now been made one of our Christians. What else could you have done,
if you were in agreement with the will of the king?" Habetdeum replied
to him: "Evil Antonius, the damnation of death occurs where the assent
of the will is bound. I, resolute in my faith, have frequently confessed
in words and defended with shouts what I believe and have believed.
But after you bound me in chains and stopped up the entrance to my
mouth, even then in the palace of my heart I prepared a report
concerning the violence I have suffered. The angels wrote it down, and
I sent it to my Emperor for him to read."

47 Indeed, the violence of the tyrants was universal, for Vandals had
been sent everywhere for the purpose of handing over people travelling
along the roads to their priests so that they would be slaughtered. But,
when they had slain them with the sword of deceiving water, they gave
them a document written in testimony of their perdition, in case they
were dragged away with similar violence on another occasion, because
neither private citizens nor merchants were allowed to travel anywhere
unless the wretched people displayed a written token of their death. In
former times Christ already showed this through a revelation to his
servant John, when he says: ‘No-one will be allowed to buy or sell
anything unless he has the branding mark of the beast on his forehead
and on his hand.’(cf Rev 13:16f)

48 For their bishops and priests went round the villages and towns by
night with an armed band, and when these robbers of souls had forced
open the doors they made their way in, bearing water and the sword.
Those whom they found at home, some of them lying asleep in bed,
they besprinkled with a fiery and destructive shower, shouting as if they
were demons and calling them Christians of the same kind as
themselves, so demonstrating that their heresy is a game rather than
any religion. The less intelligent and the ignorant thought that because

VICTOR OF VITA

of this they were guilty of defilement from sacrilege, but the wiser
rejoiced that it had not harmed them, because it had been done against
their will and while they were asleep. Many straightaway scattered
ashes on their heads, and others, in their sorrow at what had happened,
clad themselves in hair shirts. Some plastered themselves with filthy
mud and tore into shreds the linen cloths 25 which had been put on
them by force, and with the hand of faith they threw them into cesspits
and foul places.

49 I was looking on when a noble man’s son, about seven years old,
was separated from his parents here at Carthage with violence of the
same kind, on the orders of Cyrila. His mother, laying aside womanly
modesty, let down her hair and ran after the abductors through the
whole city, while the little child cried out as best he could: "I am a
Christian! I am a Christian! By means of S Stephen, I am a
Christian!" 26 But they closed his mouth and plunged him, guiltless
child that he was, into their whirlpool.

50 The same thing is known to have happened to the children of a
well-regarded doctor, Liberatus. For when the king commanded that he
be sent into exile with his wife and children, in their wickedness the
Arians decided to separate the little children from their parents,
seeking to use the influence of love to overthrow the strength of the
parents. The young children, those tender pledges of their marriage,
were separated from their parents. When Liberatus wanted to cry, he
was rebuked by the authority of his wife, and his tears immediately
dried up in their very ducts. For his wife said to him: "And are you
going to lose your soul because of the children, Liberatus? Consider
them as not having been born, for Christ will claim them entirely for
himself. Don’t you see them shouting and saying ‘We are Christians!’?"

51 What this woman did in the sight of the judges should not be
passed over in silence. For when she and her husband were being held

‘Linteamina’; the reference is to the garments in which the newly baptized were clad.
The same word is used at 3.36.

26 On Ihe cull of S Stephen. Duval 1982:624-32.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

in prison separately so that they did not see each other at all, a
message was sent to the wife and she was told: "Relax your harshness,
for behold, your husband has obeyed the command of the king and
become one of our Christians." But she said: "Let me see him and I,
too, shall do as God wills." She was therefore taken from the prison
and found her husband bound and standing with a great throng before
the tribunals. Thinking that what the enemies had made up was true,
she threw out her hand, grabbed the edges of his clothes next to his
throat and, as everyone looked on, proceeded to choke him, saying:
"You abandoned reprobate, unworthy of the grace of God and of his
mercy, why have you wished to enjoy glory for a little while and perish
for eternity? How will gold, how will silver be of any use to you? Is it
really possible that they will free you from the furnace of hell?" She
said many other things as well. But her husband replied to her: "Why
are you suffering, wife? What does it look like? Whatever have you
been hearing about me? I remain a catholic in the name of Christ, and
I shall never be able to let go of what 1 hold." The heretics, aware that
their falsehood had been uncovered, were then totally unable to gloss
over their deceit.

52 We have spoken briefly above of their violent cruelty. Many people,
both men and women, were afraid of this and hid themselves away,
some in caves and others in uninhabited places, where no-one knew
about them. There, lacking the food needed to sustain them, they were
overcome by hunger and cold, and expired in their crushed and
oppressed state. But amid these unwelcome afflictions they remained
firm, their faith inviolate. So it was that Cresconius, a priest of the
town of Mizcita (Ain Babouch), was found in a cave of Mount
Ziquense, already freed from his rotting body.

53 We have spoken already about the holy Habetdeum. Afterwards he
made his way to Carthage, thinking that he would approach the evil
king so that he might make manifest his conscience, which was always
on close and friendly terms with the Trinity, before men as well. He
was not a diffident man, and Antonius was not able to restrain him. He
presented to the most wicked king a little book which contained words
like these: "Tell me, what are you doing with those already banished?
Why do you struggle each day with those whom you send into exile?

VICTOR OF VITA

You have taken away their property and deprived them of their
churches, fatherland and homes. Only the soul remains, and you are
doing your best to take this captive. O the times, O the manners! 27
The whole world understands these things, and he who takes vengeance
sees them. If what you hold is called faith, why do you disturb the
members of the true faith with such great persecutions? What are you
doing concerning our exile, what arc you doing with us, the needy of
this world, whose life is always in Christ? Those whom you have cast
away from the sight of all people should at least be allowed to enjoy
the company of the beasts!"

54 When the pontiff of God had said these and similar things, the
accursed tyrant is said to have given him this order: "Go to our bishops
and carry out what they tell you, because they are known to have total
power in this matter." Not even this circumstance, however, could call
Antonius back from his insanity, because he knew that through his
conduct he could please the wicked king a great deal. But bishop
Habetdeum, rejoicing in having satisfied his conscience, preferred to
return to his place of exile.

55 At that time a famine occurred which was beyond belief, and it
began to devastate the whole of Africa, laying it all waste. There was
no rain then; not a single drop fell from heaven. This did not happen
for no reason, but in accordance with the true and just judgment of
God, so that where, because of the persecuting Arians, the water of the
muddy whirlpool 2 * had bubbled with fire and sulphur, the rain which
heaven bestows in its kindness and which had always been abundantly
to hand was withheld. The whole face of the earth remained yellowish:
the vine was not covered with leaves during a shaded summer, the
measures of grain which were scattered did not make the countenance
of the fields green; the olive tree, which is always green and full of
pleasant leaves, did not have its usual elegant covering; the thickets of

4 0 tempora, O mores!’ is a quotation from Cicero cat 1.2, but neither this nor the two
reminiscences of Vergil in following chapters (3.62f) prove that Victor, or indeed bishop
Habetdeum. had first hand knowledge of these classical authors.

24 Juvenal 3.266, probably known to Victor from Zeno 1.4.2; see TLL 3:97.5ff, with
Lofstedt 1982:72.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

fruit trees did not bring forth gems of flowers on the fructifying earth
and go on to yield fruit, as they usually do.

56 Eveiything was dismal and repulsive, and the disaster, which was
on the scale of a pestilence, brought about the ruin of all Africa. The
earth totally failed to produce the green of germinating plants for
either humankind or beasts, (cf Ps 103:14) The beds of rivers which,
not long before, had been running with a strong flow, became dry; the
rippling watercourses of the fountains, deprived of their perennial
sources, became equally dry. ‘All the sheep and oxen, as well as the
beasts of the field’ (Ps 8:8), and likewise the forest animals, were never
seen at all, as hunger put an end to them. And where there happened
to be a grassy field, located in a valley which was still moist, which
began to display the colour of new hay, pallid rather than green, in that
place a burning and fiery wind sprang up, drying out everything with its
scorching, because the dusty weather, which caused everything under
the dry air to shrivel up, had cast a cloud over every place.

57 There was no buying and selling at that time, and the sods of the
earth were not turned as the bullocks pulled the plough, because there
were no cattle available and absolutely no villages remained. But when
one group of country people died, those who happened to have
survived were already waiting for burial. And because, as we have said,
owing to the wretched constraint of hunger, the usual trade did not
take place, and the due cultivation was not bestowed on the fields,
marching bands and funeral processions of young and old, of youths
and maidens, of boys and even girls were spread about everywhere,
going around towns, villages and individual cities, to whatever place
and by whatever means they found possible. ‘For they were turned in
a perverse direction and, provoking God at the water of contradiction,
they endured hunger like dogs’ (cf Ps 77:57,105:32, 58:7), not that they
might eat bread, but so that they might feel the bitter hostility of the
Trinity whom they denied.

58 Some were scattered across the plains, others sought secret places
in the woods, looking for old grass roots and other waste things. There
were large numbers who, when they tried to leave their homes,
collapsed on the threshold, overcome by hunger, so that the streets and

VICTOR OF VITA

lanes were filled with corpses, and as they moved about the living were
killed on every side by the stench of the dead. Every day people
breathing their last died everywhere, but the survivors lacked the
strength to provide the burials mercy would have required. For those
who were alive were too few to bury them, and as hunger gained the
upper hand they themselves were to die shortly afterwards. Individuals
desired to change their own free status and that of their children to a
condition of perpetual servitude, but they were not able to find a way
of doing so. Mountains and hills, the streets of the towns, roads and
lanes constituted one and the same place of burial for all those people
whose lives were being taken away by the hunger which consumed
them.”

59 But the Vandals themselves, who had become wealthy from the
holding of Africa in the first place and, later, from the plentiful spoils
taken from many provinces, were tormented by a still greater want.
And the more magnificent they had seemed to themselves as they
accumulated slaves, the more were they weakened as hunger tormented
them. No-one held on to a child, a wife, or his own slave, but each one
went forth, not where he would but where he could, and either
immediately faltered or never came back at all.

60 A wretched crowd was driven to come together at the city of
Carthage itself. And when those still living corpses came together there
in large numbers and the king saw the heaps of the dead which could
not be carried away, he immediately ordered that they were all to be
driven from the city, in case infection from the dying caused his people
to have to be buried with them. He commanded that each was to be
sent back to his own province and home. But these were not people
capable of going back, since each one bore his own burial on his face.
And as it turned out, there was a greater loss among the rebaptized,
for this reason: while the Arians promised the completion of this
present life, this is not what happened, and a first death, which was

Dutch archaeologists have discovered remains suggestive of death by epidemic or
famine in late fifth centuiy Africa: Clover 1982a:15f.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

nevertheless a subsequent one, came before a second. 30 To such an
extent did the devastating famine claim lordship for itself that some
well inhabited places lost their populations; these places now repose in
a deep silence, with only their walls standing.

61 But why do I linger over a topic I lack the ability to give an
account of? For if they were still alive and it were proper for them to
speak of such things, the river of Cicero’s eloquence would be dried up,
and Sallust would remain wholly speechless. And, to pass over strangers
unworthy of so great a subject, if Eusebius of Caesarea, a man suitable
for this task, were to rise up, or Rufinus, the translator of his Greek
eloquence, a man adorned with Latin flowers...but why go on? Not
Ambrose, not Jerome, not our Augustine himself would suffice. ‘Hear
these things, all peoples; give ear, all you who live on the earth, you
bom of the earth and sons of men, rich and poor all together.’(cf Ps

48:20

62 Those of you who love barbarians and sometimes praise them, in
a way worthy of condemnation, give thought to their name and
understand their ways. 31 Surely there is no name by which they could
be appropriately called other than ‘barbarian’, a fitting word connoting
savageness, cruelty and terror? However many may be the gifts with
which you befriend them, and however many the acts of compliance
with which you placate them, they can think of nothing other than
looking on Romans with envy, and, to the extent that things turn out
in accordance with their will, it is their constant desire to darken the
brightness and nobility of the Roman name. They desire not a single
one of the Romans to live. And in cases where it is known that they
have spared their subjects until now, they spare them for to use as
slaves: for they have never loved a single Roman. 32

There is an allusion here to Rev 2:11, 20:6. The second death is also referred to above

at 1.30.

31 Victor here attacks the point of view represented by Satvian in his de gubematione dei.
although it is not clear whether he knew this author's work: see Pastorino 1980:93-100.

32 Victor's attitude to Romans and barbarians has been discussed by Alfonsi:1976. The
phrase ‘spared their subjects' stems from Vergil am 6.833, where it is applied to Romans. This
allusion, together with the string of authore named in 3.61 and the reference to Mezentius in

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63 If barbarian ferocity was concerned to dispute with us concerning
the faith, and if the Arian heresy would dispute in a reasonable way -
but when did it possess reason, separating as it does God the Son, the
Saviour, from God the Father? - why have they relied on plots and
false accusations and tried to turn everything upside down? The storm
of their rage has been like the wind of a tempest. If it was necessary
for the bishops to dispute, why the hangings, why the fires, why the
claws and the crosses? Why has the serpent-like progeny of the Arians
devised for use against the innocent such tortures as Mezentius himself
did not dream up? 33 A passionate desire for rage and a greed for
cruelty, which sought the loss of souls and the plunder of property,
contended against innocence. If it was a conference that was sought,
why the seizure of the property of others, not just of bishops but of all
the laity as well? But those people rejoiced at being despoiled and
received the seizure of their property with joy.

64 May there now be present, I ask, people of every age, sex and
condition of life; may there be present, I implore, the entire throng of
the catholic name carried in the womb of its mother (cf Is 46:3) across
the whole world, because it alone knows how to provide brotherly
sympathy, as is learned from Paul the teacher, ‘rejoicing together with
those who are happy and lamenting with those who mourn.’ (Rom
12:15) Let them come together at the house of our grief and let us
pour forth rivers of tears from our eyes together, because the matter
relates to the cause and faith we have in common.

65 I wish for no heretic to come and mourn with me, because he
might aspire ‘to add to the pain of my wounds’ (Ps 68:27) and daily
‘take joy in my misfortunes’ (Ps 34:26). I do not want, no, I do not
want the sympathy of strangers, but I seek that of brothers; I do not
want that of‘the sons of strangers whose mouth has spoken vanity and
their right hands are the right hands of iniquity’ (Ps 143:7f), because
‘the sons of strangers have’ ever ‘lied to me’, those who ‘became old

3.63, is a sign of the more literary style Victor adopts towards the end of his book.

Mezentius was, according to Vergil an ally of Aeneas’ enemy Turnus. The tortures he
used are known from am 8.481-87. Pastorino, on the strength of this reference asserts that
Victor knew Vergil (1980:79n.ll6), but I would rather keep an open mind.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

and limped away from their paths.’ (Ps 17:46 Vulg) They ‘say to me
daily "Where is your God?’” (Ps 41:4,11) while that people purchased
by the precious Blood of the Lamb is struck down. Amid their
reproaches I, ‘prepared for the whips’ (cf. Ps 37:1 If Vulg), do not cease
to sing to the Lord as he whips me, 'Take your whips away from me,
for ‘I have been laid low’, not ‘by the strength of your hand’ (Ps 38:12
Vulg), but by the persecution of the Arian heresy."

66 Let all who tread the path of the narrow way with me and who, ‘on
account of the words of the bps of God, keep to the hard paths’, (cf Ps
16:14) come ‘and see whether there is any grief like my grief.’ (Lam
1:12) Since I am a gatherer of grapes for the day of the fierce anger of
the Lord, ‘all my enemies have opened their mouths against me, they
have hissed and ground their teeth, and they have said: "We shall eat
him up! This is the day we have been waiting for, we have come upon
it, we have seen it!'” (Lam 2:16)

67 Be present, angels of my God, you who never fail, established as
you are in your ministry for the sake of those who have taken hold of
the inheritance of eternal salvation, and look upon all Africa, formerly
supported by companies of great churches, now deprived of them all;
then adorned with great ranks of priests, now sitting as a downcast
widow. ‘Its priests and elders have perished’ in uninhabited places and
islands ‘from seeking food to eat’ (Lam 1:19), but they did not find any.
‘Pay attention and see’ (cf. Lam 1:11) that Zion the city of our God
‘has become contemptible and, as it were, polluted by menses in the
midst of those hostile to her.’ (cf Lam 1:17) ‘The enemy has set his
hand against all her desirable things, and so she sees the nations
invading and entering into her courts, people who, you have ordered,
are not to enter into your church.’ (Lam 1:10) ‘Her paths are in
mourning, because no-one assembles on a festival day.’ (Lam 1:4)

68 ‘All comeliness and charm has departed’ (Lam 1:6 Vulg) from her
face; ‘her virgins’ have learned to walk along bitter paths, ‘and her
young men,’ brought up in the halls of monasteries; they ‘have gone
away into captivity’ (Lam 1:18) among the Moors, while ‘her holy
stones are scattered,’ not only ‘at the comers of all the streets’ (Lam
4:1), but also in the foul places of the mines. Say ‘to God our

VICTOR OF VITA

protector’ (cf Ps 41:10), with the confidence of one at prayer, ‘since she
is afflicted and her bowels disturbed’ (Lam 1:20) by her weeping, that
‘she sits among the nations and does not find rest, neither is there one
to console her.’ (Lam 1:3,2) She has sought from the fathers of the
East 34 ‘one who might share in her sorrow, and there was none, and
one to console her, and she did not find him, while she took gall for
her food and in her thirst drank vinegar’ (cf Ps 68:21f), imitating the
sufferings of her spouse and Lord, “who suffered for her that she might
follow his footsteps.’ (cf I Pet 2:21)

69 Intercede, you patriarchs, from whose lineage she who now labours
on the earth was bom; pray, you holy prophets, who see afflicted the
one of whom you formerly sang in prophetic utterance; be her
supporters, you apostles, you who ran to and fro across the whole
world like swift horses so that you might bring her together as the Lord
ascended over you. Especially you, blessed Peter, why do you not speak
on behalf of the sheep and lambs entrusted to you by the Lord of all,
in his great care and concern? 35 You, holy Paul, teacher of the
gentiles, who preached the gospel of God ‘from Jerusalem as far as
Illyricum’ (Rom 15:19), recognize what the Arian Vandals are doing,
and your captive sons who groan in lamentation; and all you holy
apostles, groan for us in unison!

70 But we know that we are unworthy of your prayers, because these
torments which have taken place to test us were the deserts, not of the
holy, but of those who deserved ill. But pray now for your evil sons,
because Christ, too, prayed, even for his enemies the Jews. May these
things which have been justly imposed on us suffice for our correction,
and may mercy for the wrongdoers be asked for at this very moment;
may the ‘persecuting angel’ be told ‘"Enough, now stay your hand."’ (II
Sam 24:16) Who can fail to understand that our sinful and shameful
acts brought these things upon us, wandering away as we did from the
commandments of God and ‘not wishing to walk in his law’ (Ps 77:10)?

Reading ‘patribus' (with Halm), against 'partibus' (so Petschenig).

35 One wouJd have thought the ‘cautela et sollicitudo' more likely to have been attributed
to Peter than the Lord, but the latter is meant here.

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

But, prostrate, we ask, through the one who moved you forward from
being humble fishermen to your exalted position as apostles, that you
do not spurn your wretched sinners.

[71 The most wicked Huniric held dominion in his kingdom for seven
years and ten months. His death was in accordance with his merits, for
as he rotted and the worms multiplied it seemed not so much a body
as parts of his body which were buried. In addition, that transgressor
of the revealed law who formerly came to them from the heresy of the
Donatists, Nicasius, soon perished with a similar death. 36 ]

Nicasius is otherwise unknown. Courtois conjectures 'sic anus’, or ‘ut anus,' in place of
the name (1954:16 n. 38), but I would be happy to accept it. Nevertheless, Courtois is almost
certainly correct in regarding this passage as an interpolation (1954:16), together with Halm and
Petschenig. The question is not advanced by Roncoroni 1977.

VICTOR OF VITA

ABBREVIATIONS

CCSL

Corpus Christianorum Series Latina

CIL

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

CSEL

Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiaslicorum
Latinorum

MGH AA

Monumenta Germaniae Historica Auctores
Antiquissimi

Patrologia Graeca

Patrologia Latina

PLRE

Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
vol. 2 (ed. J. Martindale)

PLS

Patrologia Latina Supplementum

Sources Chretiennes

TLL

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
EDITIONS

C. Halm MG 11A A 2 1879
M. Petschenig CSEL 7 1881

PRIMARY SOURCES

Ambrose of Milan De fide CSEL 78

Augustine of Hippo De civitate dei CCSL 47f (trans. H. Bettenson,
Harmondsworth 1972)

_ Confessiones ed. M. Skutella, Paris 1962 (trans. H. Chadwick,

Oxford, 1991)

_ Epistulae CSEL 34, 44, 57f (trans. W. Parsons, Washington

D. C. 1951 +)

_ Retractationes CSEL 36 (trans. M. E. Brogan, Washington

D. C. 1968)

_ Sennones PL 38f

R. C. Blockley ed. and trans. The fragmentary classicizing historians of
the later Roman empire Liverpool 1983

Cassiodorus Variae MGI1AA 12 (condensed trans. Th. Hodgkin,
London 1886)

Codex justinianus ed. P. Kruger, Berlin 1877

VICTOR OF VITA

Codex theodosianus ed. Th. Mommsen and P. M. Meyer, Berlin 1905
(trans. C. Pharr, Princeton 1952)

Cyprian of Carthage Epistulae CSEL 3 (trans. G. W. Clarke, New
York 1984 +)

Diadochus of Photike CEuvres spirituelles SC 5 bis

Ennodius Vila Epifani MGH AA 7 (trans G. M. Cook, in R. J.
Deferrari ed. Early Christian biographies Washington D.C.
1952)

Evagrius A History of the church trans. E. Walford, London 1851
Expositio totius mundi el gentium SC 124

O. Fiebiger and L. Schmidt Inschriftensammlung zur Geschichte der
Ostgermanen Vienna 1917 +

Gennadius Liber de viris inlustribus ed. E. C. Richardson, Leipzig 1896

Gregory of Rome Dialogi SC 151, 260, 265 (trans. O. J.
Zimmermann, New York 1959)

Gregory of Tours Libri historiarum MGH Scriptores rerum
Merovingicarum 1 (trans. History of the Franks O. M. Dalton,
Oxford 1927)

Hydatius Continuatio chronicorum MGH AA 11

Isidore of Seville Hisloria Gothorum Wandalorum Sueborum MGH
AA 11 (trans. G. Donini and G. B. Ford, Leiden 1970)

Jordanes Getica MGH AA 5 (trans. C. C. Mierow, Princeton 1908)

Laterculus regum Wandalorum el Alanorum MGH AA 13

Luxorius ed. and trans. M. Rosenblum, New York 1961

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

Marcellinus comes Chronicon MGH AA 11

Nestorius The bazaar of Heracleides trails. G. R. Driver and L.
Hodgson, Oxford 1925

Optatus Libri VII CSEL 26

Possidius Vita Augustini PL 32:33ff (trans. M. M. Muller and R. J.
Deferrari, in R. J. Deferrari ed. Early Christian biographies
Washington D.C. 1952)

Procopius ed. and trans. H.B. Dewing, London 1914-1940

Prosper Tiro Epitoma chronicon MGH AA 9

Prudentius Liberperistephanon PL 60:277ff (trans. P. Clement Eagan,
Washington D.C. 1962)

Quodvultdeus Liberpromissionum SC lOlf

Salvian Degubematione dei CSEL 1 (trans. J.F. O’Sullivan, New York
1947)

De tempore barbarico PLS 3:287-298

Tertullian Apologeticum CCSL 1

Victor of Tunnunna Chronica MGH AA 11

Vigilius of Thapsus Contra Varimadum PL 62:35Iff

Vita S. Danielis stylitae ed. H. Delehaye, Les Saints stylites, Brussels
1923 (trans. E. Davies and N. H. Baynes, Three Byzantine
saints, Oxford 1948)

Zacharias The Syriac chronicle known as that of Zachariah of Mytilene
trans. FJ. Hamilton and E.W. Brooks, London 1899

VICTOR OF VITA

MODERN WORKS

L. Alfonsi ‘L’ «Historia persecution^ Africanae provinciae», owero il
rifiuto di un ippocrita rinunciatarismo velleitario: "Romani" e
"barbari"’ Siculorum gymnasium 29 1976 1-18

O. W. Bairam-Ben and L. Ennalbi ‘Note sur la topographie chretienne

de Carthage: Les mosaiques du monastere de Bigna’ Revue
des etudes augustiniennes 18 1982 3-18

C. Bela ‘Geiserich 6s Vandaljai Romaban (455. Jun. 2-16)’ Acta
antiqua et archaeologica Suppl. 2 (Szeged, 1979), 25-32 (with
summary in German)

S. A. Belyaev ‘Ob odnom ‘protivorechii’ ‘Istorii’ Viktora iz Vity’ in
Antichnost’ i Sovremennost’ (Fest. F.A. Petrovskii) Moscow
1972 193f

F. Bertini Autori latini in Africa sotto la dominazione vandalica Genoa

1974

P. Brown Augustine of Hippo London 1967

R. Browning Justinian and Theodora London 1971

S. Calderone ‘Circumcelliones’ La Parola delpassato 22 1967 94-109

A. Cameron ‘Byzantine Africa - the literary evidence’ in J.H.
Humphrey ed. Excavations at Carthage 1978 conducted by the
University of Michigan VII Ann Arbor 1982 pp. 29-62

G. Capello ‘II Latino di Vittore di Vita’ Atti della Societa italiana per

il progresso delle scienze (XXV riunione) 16 1937 74-108

A. Carandini ‘Pottery and the African Economy’ in P. Gamsey, K.
Hopkins and C. R. Whittaker ed. Trade in the ancient economy
Berkeley 1983 pp.145-62

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

A. Chastagnol ‘Les Gouvemeurs de Byzacene et de Tripolitaine’
Anliquites africaines 1 1967 119-34

F. Chatillon ‘L’Afrique oubliee de Christian Courtois et les 'ignotae
regiones’ de la Vita Fulgentii’ Revue du moyen age latin 11
1955 371-88

D. Claude ‘Millenarius und thiuphadus’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung
fur Rechtsgeschichte Germanische Abt. 88 1971 181-90

F. M. Clover ‘Carthage and the Vandals’ Excavations at Carthage 1
1982a 1-22

_ ‘Emperor Worship hi Vandal Africa’ in Romanitas

-Christianitas Berlin 1982b pp. 663-74

_ ‘Felix Karthago’ Dumbarton Oaks Papers 40 1986 1-16

S. Costanza ‘Considerazioni storiografice nelT Historia persecutionis
Africanae provinciae di Vittore di Vita’ Bollettino di studi
Latini 6 1976 30-36

_ ‘Vittore di Vita e la Historia persecutionis Africanae

provinciae' Vetera Christianorum 17 1980 230-268

_ Vittore di Vita: Storia della persecutione vandalica in Africa

Rome 1981

_ ‘«Barbarus furor» in Vittore di Vita’ in Sodalitas Scritti in

onore di Antonio Guarino 2 Naples 1984 711-19

P. Courcelle Histoire litteraire des grandes invasions germaniques 3rd
edn Paris 1964

C. Courtois Victor de Vita et son oeuvre Algiers 1954

_ Les Vandals et lAfrique Paris 1955

100

VICTOR OF VITA

J. Cuoq L’liglise dAfrique du nord du He au Xlle siecle Paris 1984
F. Decret and M. Fantar LAfrique du nord dans Vantiquite Paris 1981

H. Delehaye Sanctus Brussels 1927

J. Desanges ‘Un temoignage peu connu de Procope sur la Numide
vandale et byzantine’ Byzantion 33 1963 41-69

H.-J. Diesner ‘Sklaven und Verbannte, Martyrer und Confessoren bei
Victor Vitensis’ Philologus 106 1962 101-120

_ Kirche und Staat im Spatrbmischen Reich Berlin 1964

_ Das Vandalenreich Stuttgart 1966

_ ‘Prologomena zu einer Prosopogaphie des Vandalenreiches’

Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen byzantinischen Gesellschaft 17
1968 1-15

_ ‘Zum vandalischen Post- und Verkehrswesen’ Philologus 112

1968 283-87

_ ‘Grenzenund Grenzverteidigungdcs Vandalenreiches’ in Studi

in onore di Edoardo Volterra 3 Milan 1971 pp. 481-90

G. G. Diligenskii Severnaya Afrika v IV-V vekakh Moscow 1961

Y. Duval Loca sanctorum: Le culle des martyres en Afrique du IVe au
Vile siecle Rome 1982

L. Ennalbi Les inscriptions funeraires chretiennes de la basilique de
Sainte-Monique a Carthage Rome 1975

F. Ferrere ‘Langue et style de Victor de Vita* Revue de philologie 25
1901 320-36

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

101

J. D. Frage ed. The Cambridge History of Africa 2 Cambridge 1978

W. H. C. Frend The Donatist church 2nd impression Oxford 1971

_ The early Christian church in Carthage’ Excavations at

Carthage 3 1977 21-40

_ ‘Donatist and catholic: The organisation of Christian

communities in the north African countryside’ in
Cristianizzazione ed organizzazione ecclesiastica delle campagne
nell’ alto medioevo: Espansione e resistenze Spoleto 1982
(=Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’ alto
medioevo 28) 601-634

E.-F. Gautier Genseric roi des vandales Paris 1932

A. Giardina ed. Societa romana e impero tardoantico 3 Le merci gli
insediamenti Rome 1986

W. Goffart Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584: The techniques of
accommodation Princeton 1980

R. Heuberger ‘Vandalische Reichskanzlei und Konigsurkunden im
Vcrgleich mit verwandten Einrichtungen und Erscheinungen’
Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Instituts fur
Geschichtsforschung Erganzband 11 1929

R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse Mohammed Charlemagne and the origins
of Europe London 1983

T. Hodgkin Italy and her invaders 2nd edn vol. 2 book 3 Oxford
1892

H. R. Hurst and S.P. Roskams Excavations at Carthage: The British
mission vol. 1/1 Sheffield 1984

A. H. M. Jones The later Roman empire 284-602 Oxford 1964

102

VICTOR OF VITA

G. G. Koenig ‘Wandalische Grabfunde des 5. und 6. Jhs’ Madrider

Milleilungen 22 1981 299-360

A. -M. La Bonnadiere Recherches de chronologie augustinienne Paris

1965

H. Leclercq L’Afrique chretienne 2 Paris 1904a
_ Les martyrs 3 Paris 1904b

B. Lofstedt ‘Drei patristische Beitrage’ Arctos 16 1982 65-72

J.-L. Maier L’Episcopat de lAfrique romaine, vandale et byzantine
Rome 1973

A. Mandouze Prosopographie chretienne du bas-empire 1
Prosopographie de lAfrique chretienne (303-533) Paris 1982

R. A. Markus ‘Christianity and dissent in Roman north Africa:
Changing perspectives in recent work’ Studies in church history
9 1972 21-36

H.-I. Marrou ‘Diadoque de Photike et Victor de Vita’ Revue des
etudes anciennes 44 1943 225-232

_ ‘Le valeur historique de Victor de Vita’ Les cahiers de Tunisie

15 1967 205-208

J. Martindale The Prosopography of the later Roman empire 2
Cambridge 1980

F. Martroye Genseric Paris 1907

F. Miltner ‘Vandalen’ Pauly-Wissowa ed. Realencyclopadie der

classischen Allertumswissenschaft 8 298-335

G. Mokhtar ed. General History of Africa 2 Ancient Civilizations of

Africa Paris 1981

HISTORY OF THE VANDAL PERSECUTION

103

J. Orlandis Historia de Espana 4 lipoca Vsigoda (409-711)

Madrid 1987

M. Overbeck Untersuchungen zum Afrikanischen Senatsadel in der
Spdtantike Kallmiinz Opf. 1973

A. Pastorino ‘Osservazione sulla Historia persecutions Africanae
provinciae di Vittore di Vita’ in S. Calderone ed. La
storiografia ecclesiastica nella tarda antichita Messina 1980

M. Petschenig ‘Die handschriftliche Ueberlieferung des Victor von
Vita’ Sitzungsberichle der Philosophisch- Historische Classe der
Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften Vienna 96 1880

R. Pitkaranta ‘Stilistischer Kommentar zur "Passio septem martyrum"’
Arctos 8 1974 127-37

_ Studien zum Latein des Victor Vitensis Helsinki 1978

D. Pringle The defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab
conquest Oxford 1981

P. Riche Education and culture in the barbarian West trans. J. J.
Contreni Columbia 1976

D. Romano ‘Osservazioni sul prologo alia Historia di Vittore

Vitense’ Atli della Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Palermo
4th ser. 20 1962 19-36

A. Roncoroni ‘Sulla morte di re Unerico’ Romanobarbarica 2 1977
247-57

_ ‘Vittore Vitense, Historia persecutions Africanae provinciae,

III, 55-60’ Siculorum gymnasium 29 1979 387-95

V. Saxer Mors martyrs reliques en Afrique chretienne aux premiers
siecles Paris 1980

104

VICTOR OF VITA

M. Schanz Geschichte der Romischen Literatur 4 Munich 1904

L. Schmidt Geschichte der Wandalen 2nd edn Munich 1942

P. Senay and M. Beauregard ‘L’Aedes Memoriae : Un temoignage
antique sur le monument circulaire de Carthage’ Cahiers des
etudes anciennes 19 1986 78-85

E. Stein Histoire du bas-empire 1 Paris 1959

Y. Thcbert ‘L’Evolution urbaine dans les provinces orientales de
TAfrique romaine tardive’ Opus 1983 99-131

C. R. Whittaker ‘Land and labour in North Africa’ Klio 60 1978 1-
62

H. Wolfram ‘Gotisches Konigtum und romisches Kaisertum von
Theodosius dem Grossen bis Justinian I.’ Fruhmittelatlerlichen
Studien 13 1979 1-28

_ Intitulatio Graz 1967

P. Wynn ‘Rufinus of Aquilea’s Ecclesiastical history and Victor of
Vita’s History of the Vandal persecution' Classica et
mediaevalia 41 1990 187-98

VICTOR OF VITA

105

INDEX

Abaritana and Gaetulia 7
Alexander, vir inlustris 25f
Ambrose 89
Amsaga River 29
Ancestors, basilica of the 6
Andreas, abbot 15
Anduit, Arian priest 18
Antonius, Arian bishop 8If, 85f
Apulia 23
Aqua Regia 75
Ariminum, council of 65
Armogas, count 19f

Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius 6f, 89

Boniface, bishop of Foratiana 63
Boniface, bishop of Gratiana 63
Boniface, count 10
Boniface, deacon 81
Boniface of Sibida 73
Bruttium 23
Byzacena 7, 20, 63

Calabria 23
Campania 8, 23
Caprapicta 17

Capsur, king of the Moors 16f

Carthage 5, 7, 20, 23, 33, 38, 41, 64, 65, 69, 74, 76f, 80, 84, 85, 88
Celerina and the Scillitani, basilica of 6
Cicero 89
Cirta 29

Clementianus, monk 24
Constantinople 25, 76
Corsica 7, 71

Crescens, metropolitanrof Aquitana 11
Cresconius, bishop of Oea 11
Cresconius, priest of Mizeita 85

106

INDEX

Culusi 74

Cyprian, bishop of Unizibir 35
Cyprian, martyr, churches dedicated to 8
Cyrila, Arian bishop 27, 32, 43f, 76, 84

Dagila, wife of a butler 77
Dalmatia 23
Dativa 73

Deogratias, bishop of Carthage 12f
Diadochus, pontiff 1
Dionysia 72f
Donatists 93

Edessa 14
Elpidoforus 78f
Emilius, doctor 73
Ethiopians 30

Eugenius, bishop of Carthage 26f, 30, 37, 38f, 40-42, 44, 78, 81f
Eusebius of Caesaraea 89
Eustratius, bishop of Sufes 11

Faustus, basilica of 13, 30, 41, 78

Faustus, bishop of Buruni 18

Felicitas, S, body of 6

Felix, bishop of Abbir 33

Felix, bishop of Hadrumentum 11

Felix, blind man 41f

Felix, superintendent 20

Florentianus, bishop 70

Frumentius and Frumentius, merchants 81

Fusculus, bishop 40

Gaetulia 7
Gales 19

Gamuth, brother of Heldica 29

Geiseric, duke and king 3, 7-12, 15, 17-19, 23, 24, 28, 29,

73, 77, 80

Genton, brother of Huniric 28

VICTOR OF VITA

107

Germanus, bishop 40, 73
Godagis, son of Genton 29
Greece 23

Habetdeum, bishop of Teudalis 11
Habetdeum, bishop of Thamalluma 82f, 85f
Heldica, superintendent of the kingdom 29
Hildirit, son of Huniric 71
Hippo Regius 6
Hortulanus, bishop 70

Huniric, king 21, 24, 27, 28-30, 32-33, 37f, 39, 41, 42,
64, 69f, 81, 85, 93

Ibiza 7
Italy 23

Januarius, bishop of Zattara 63
Jerome 89
John, monk 11

Jucundus, Arian priest and bishop 19, 28, 29, 30

Laetus, bishop 43
Lares 31, 33

Leontia, daughter of bishop Germanus 73

Liberatus, abbot 81

Liberatus, doctor 84

Ligula 9

Lucania 23

Luke 2

Macedonia 14

Majoricus, son of Dionysia 73
Mallorca 7
Manichaeans 24
Mansuetus, bishop 40
Mansuetus, bishop of Urusi 6
Mappalia 9

Marivadus, Arian deacon 21

108

INDEX

Mascula, chief pantomime 20f
Martinianus, slave 14-17
Mauritania, greater 76
Maxima, slave 14-16
Maximus, monk 81
Maxula 9

Memoria, temple of 5, 70
Menorca 7
Mezentius 90
Mizeita 85

Moors 12, 16, 25, 33, 35, 36, 91
Muritta, deacon 78f

Naples 8
Nicasius 93

Novae, basilica of the 13
Numidia 7, 63

Obadus, superintendent of the kingdom 39f
Odovacer, king of Italy 8
Old Epirus 23
Olybrius 24

Pampinianus, bishop of Vita 6
Paul 2,90,92

Paul, bishop of Sinnari 14, 31
Peregrinus, deacon 41
Perpetua, S, body of 6
Peter 92

Placidia, widow of Olybrius 24
Porta Fornitana 6
Praesidius, bishop of Sufetula 40
Proconsular province 7, 14
Proculus 18f

Quintianus, bishop 14, 31
Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage 8

VICTOR OF VITA

109

Regia 18

Reginus, legate of Zeno 37
Reparatus, subdeacon 76
Restituta, church 8
Rogatus, monk 81
Rome 12, 13
Rufinus 89

Rusticus, subdeacon 81
Sallust 89

Salutaris, archdeacon 78

Sardinia 7, 23, 32

Saturianus, slave 14-17

Saturus, superintendent 21f

Sebastian, count 9f

Secundianus, bishop of Mimiana 40

Seleucia 65

Septimus, monk 81

Sersao 16

Severus, patrician 23
Servus of Tuburbo 73
Servus, subdeacon 81
Sicca Veneria 31, 33
Sicily 7,23,32
Spain 3, 23, 76
Stephen, S 84

Tabraca, monastery of 15
Tertius 73
Teucharia 29

Tcucharius, former lector 80
Thamalluma 82
Thambaia 75

Theoderic, son of Geiseric 19, 28f

Thomas, bishop 14

Thrace 32

Timothy 2

Tipasa 76

110

INDEX

Tripolitania 11, 81
Tunuzuda 19

Uranius, legate 77
Urbanus, bishop of Girba 11
Utica 27

Valentinian, emperor 7, 12
Valerian, bishop of Abensa 18
Via Caelestis 5
Vicis, bishop of Sabrata 11
Victoria of Culusi 74

Victorianus of Hadrumentum, proconsul of Carthage 74

Vicus Ammoniae 19

Villaticus, bishop of Casae Medianae 63

Vincent, bishop of Zigga 14

Vitarit, notary 25, 39

Zeno, emperor 23, 24f, 37, 76f
Zeugitana 7, 14, 18
Ziquense, Mount 31, 85
Zura 34

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